Thus, the resulting 18 genes (POS_AP: ANXA2, CD44, DPEP1, IGBP2, IQGAP2, MMP2, MTTP, NCF1C, STEAP3, TCF19, TEAD, and TM6SF2; NEG_AP: ALOXE3, GABRD, LOC293392, LOC440905, PANX2, and SGSM1) not only represented genes that were significantly related to astrocytoma initiation and progression but also genes that exhibited heterogeneity among tumour samples and in terms of the prognosis (Fig. 1a,b). Here, MMP2 is linked to neoplasm.