To assess the expression of proliferation-related protein (Ki67), apoptosis-related proteins (BAX, BAK, BIM, BCL-2, BCL-XL and MCL1) and metastasis-associated protein (MMP9) in tumor tissues, immunohistochemistry assay was conducted with the following antibodies as previously reported [27 (link)]. Anti-Ki67 (ab245113), anti-BAX (ab32503), anti-BAK (ab32371), anti-BIM (ab32158), anti-BCL-2 (ab32124), anti-BCL-XL (ab32370), anti-MCL1 (ab32087) and anti-MMP9 (ab76003) were purchased from Abcam.