Cell proliferation assessment

Cell proliferation was evaluated with MTT and colony formation assays. For the MTT assay, NSCLC cells (200 μl, 1 × 10⁴ cells/ml) were incubated in 96‐well plates. Next, the MTT solution (20 μl, Sigma) was added into each well and the purple crystals were dissolved with dimethylsulfoxide (150 μl, Sigma). The absorbance was then measured with a Microplate Reader (Bio‐Rad) at 570 nm. For the colony formation assay, NSCLC cells (2 × 10³ cells/well) were seeded into 6‐well plates and cultured for 2 weeks, followed by staining with crystal violet (0.5%, Solarbio). The colonies were counted using a light microscope (Olympus).