Fig 1: Metastatic BC LNs exhibit four CAF subsets.a Representative FACS plots showing FAP, CD29, PDPN, aSMA and PDGFRß protein levels in DAPI- EPCAM- CD45- CD31- CD235a- cells from a primary breast tumor (PT, left) and its corresponding metastatic axillary lymph node (LN, right). b, c FlowSom trees built on CAF from LNs (b, n = 20) and PTs (c, n = 16) and annotated for each CAF marker expression. Colors show CAF marker intensities. Node size depends on the number of phenotypically close cells. d Specific mean fluorescence intensity (speMFI) for each marker per CAF subset in PT and LN. Values are in log2 adjusted with offsets per marker. Each dot represents one sample (n = 13 PT/LN pairs). Boxplots are median ± 25%–75% quantiles, whisker values range 1.5 × IQR above 75th or below 25th percentiles. p Values from Wilcoxon signed rank test. e Correlation plots between each marker speMFI in PT and LN, matched by patient and CAF subset (n = 13 PT/LN pairs). p Values from Spearman’s test. f Same as in a for an invaded axillary LN (left) and its corresponding non-invaded LN (right). g Correlation plots between the percentage (%) of each CAF subset among total CAF and EPCAM+ cells among live cells, in invaded axillary LN (n = 19). p Values from Spearman’s test. Source data provided in Source Data file, with R scripts used.