Metastatic thyroid cancer cells (FTC-238) displayed upregulated MUC15 expression compared to normal thyroid epithelial cells; in particular, FTC-238 cells displayed significantly upregulated MUC15 expression (greater than 20 folds) than Nthy-ori-3.1 cells (p = 0.0014); however, TPC-1 (non-metastatic cancer cells) did not display a significant difference (Fig. 1c and Supplementary Figure S1D). The gene discussed is MUC15; the disease is thyroid gland carcinoma.