SPARC and gastric cancer: Franke et al.[20] demonstrated on a larger patient series that SPARC is differentially expressed in gastric cancers and that its expression correlates with tumor progression and nodal spread using tissue microarrays (TMAs), The level of expression of SPARC, determined by immunohistochemistry, correlated in intestinal-type gastric cancer with the local tumor growth, nodal spread, and tumor stage according to the International Union Against Cancer.