Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that a higher clinical stage, positive lymph node metastasis and positive Dock6 expression were independent risk factors for the overall survival of GC patients (Additional file 5: Table S3).Kaplan-Meier analysis results showed that GC patients with positive Dock6 expression exhibited a shorter overall survival time than patients with negative Dock6 expression (Fig. 1d). The gene discussed is DOCK6; the disease is gastric cancer.