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DECLARATIONS
Acknowledgements
We thank Ms Liz Jones, Ms Alice Chibnall and Dr Jonathan Dunne of the Gillies McIndoe Research
Institute for their assistance in IHC staining, tissue processing for NanoString mRNA analysis, and WB,
respectively.

Authors’ contributions
Formulated the study hypothesis: Itinteang T, Tan ST
Designed the study: Itinteang T, Wickremesekera AC, Tan ST
Recruited patients and obtained study samples: Wickremesekera AC, Parker A, Koeck H
Interpreted the DAB IHC data: Itinteang T, Brasch HD, Wickremesekera AC, Tan ST
Interpreted the IF IHC data: Itinteang T, Wickremesekera AC, Tan ST
Interpreted the WB and NanoString mRNA analysis data: Itinteang T, Tan ST
Drafted the manuscript: Wickremesekera AC, Itinteang T, Tan ST
All authors commented on and approved the manuscript.

Availability of data and materials
Data supporting the findings of this study can be obtained by contacting the corresponding author.

Financial support and sponsorship
None.

Conflict of interest
All authors declared that there are no conflicts of interest. TI, PFD and STT are inventors of the
provisional patents Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy (No.PCT/NZ2015/050108) and Cancer Therapeutic
(PCT/NZ2018/050006), and provisional patent application Novel Pharmaceutical Compositions for Cancer
Therapy (US/62/711709).

Ethics approval and consent to participate
This study was approved by the Central Health and Disabilities Ethics Committee (Ref. 15CEN28) with
written informed consent from all subjects in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent for publication
Not applicable.

Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019.

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