VEGFA and gastric cancer: Compared with the healthy controls, higher expression levels of COX-2, BCL9, VEGF, and CD34 were observed in tissue samples from H. pylori gastritis and H. pylori-related gastric cancer, and the expression levels of these proteins were even higher in H. pylori-related gastric cancer compared to H. pylori gastritis (Figs 6 and 7A–D).