Preoperative serum concentrations of a soluble form of VCAM-1 in the sera of gastric cancer patients were significantly higher when compared with those of healthy controls; in addition, there were significant associations of elevated VCAM-1 levels with disease stage, gastric wall invasion, lymph node involvement and presence of distant metastases (Alexiou et al, 2002). Here, VCAM1 is linked to gastric cancer.