MUC4 and cancer: We also compared the survival and hazard ratio, in the same cancers whose survival is associated with MUC4 (bladder cancer, colon cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous carcinoma, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, skin cancer and stomach cancer), according to gene signatures corresponding to the five first gene ontology term from Additional file 3: Table S1 (GO 0031424: keratinization, GO 0007155: cell adhesion, GO 0019897: extrinsic component of plasma membrane, GO 0016323: basolateral plasma membrane and GO 0016324: apical plasma membrane) (Fig. 6a, Additional file 6: Table S2).