PTX3 and gastric cancer: Consistent with this finding, an additional analysis of a cohort of 70 patients with early-stage (stage I–II) and late-stage (stage III–IV) malignant gastric cancer (GSE27342) [26] demonstrated significantly higher PTX3 expression in patients with stage III gastric cancer than in those with stage I–II or IV gastric cancer (Figure 2C, P=0.016).