MMRN1 and cancer: This identified 58 out of the 249 ECM genes represented in the RNA-seq data set to be cancer associated (from hereon referred to as cancer-associated ECM genes (C-ECM genes)) (Supplementary Table 2), comprising 30 out of the 522 upregulated genes, and 28 out of the 644 downregulated genes, representing significant enrichment among both upregulated (odds ratio (OR) = 3.51, p < 3.9e−8, Fisher’s Exact Test, two-sided) and downregulated (OR = 2.57, p = 3e−5, Fisher’s Exact Test) genes in malignant tissues (Fig. 1a).