The pattern of mucin phenotype expression was significantly different between group A and group B or C (Cochran-Armitage trend test, p = 0.005 and p = 0.03, respectively); but there were no difference between group B and group C tumours (p = 0.642) and between group A/B and C tumours (p = 0.147) (Additional file 1: Table S4). Here, MUC5AC is linked to neoplasm.