After taking into account various clinical characteristics of the patients (Additional file 1: Table S2), and adjusting for age, tumor size, grade, number of metastatic lymph nodes and lymphovascular invasion, multivariate analysis identified phospho-ATM level as an independent predictor of overall survival (HR 1.83, 95%CI 1.063–3.164, P = 0.029; Fig. 6b). Here, ATM is linked to neoplasm.