Fig. 3

STAT3 mRNA expression associations with patient characteristics. a Box plots of STAT3 mRNA expression association with gender. b Box plots of STAT3 mRNA expression association with patient age. The line inside box represents the median, the lower and upper edges of the boxes represent the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively, and upper and lower lines outside the boxes represent minimum and maximum values (error bars). The Mann-Whitney test showed, that males and patient group older than 60 years were significantly associated with reduced STAT3 mRNA expression (p < 0.05)