SPP1 and gastric cancer: In the present study, we focused on the association of these SNPs with GC, and although the distribution of genotypes in the OPN promoter was not significantly different between GC patients and healthy controls, there were significant differences in the distribution of genotypes (CC) at nt -443 between patients with stage IV and stage I gastric cancer (IA + IB) and between stage IV and the combined other three stages of gastric cancer (IA + IB + II + III; Table 4).