In this study, we showed for the first time a comprehensive survey indicating that the expression of select OATPs, including OATP1B3, OATP2B1, OATP3A1, OATP4A1 and OATP5A1, is correlated with human gastric cancer progression as examined in a number of human clinical data sets, which provides a rationale for the role of these transporters in increasing NIRF dye uptake in gastric cancer cells (Figure 4). This evidence concerns the gene SLCO4A1 and gastric cancer.