HDGF and non-small cell lung carcinoma: Consistent with its function as a mitogen, HDGF is found to be up-regulated in multiple cancers and its expression level negatively correlates with the prognosis of cancer patients including gastric cancer, HCC in Japan populations, non-small-cell lung cancer, esophageal carcinoma, and pancreatic cancer [13-19], implying its importance during cancer development.