To our knowledge, this is the first time to demonstrate NGF autocrine secretion in gastrointestinal cancer, although several previous studies have shown NGF autocrine secretion in other types of cancer (Weeraratna et al, 2000; Zhu et al, 2001, 2002; Dolle et al, 2003), as well as in noncancerous tissues (Torcia et al, 1996; Pincelli and Marconi, 2000). Here, NGF is linked to cancer.