SPARC and rheumatoid arthritis: Although potential UTR-SNPs relevant for cancer association studies could be successfully identified through innovative computer-based procedures, it is worth stressing that the candidate SNPs should be verified through experimental methods such as RT-PCR, microarrays and genotyping experiments, as described here for the polymorphisms located on SPARC. SPARC is a gene involved in a number of diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, tumor development and metastasis [62-67].