GSEA analysis of transcriptome data from 376 TCGA CRC patients suggested that ASPN level was positively correlated with Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), TGF-β pathway, and genesets targeted by Smad3 motif (Fig. 3d–f), which further confirmed that TGF-β/Smad2/3 signaling pathway was involved in the ASPN-related CRC migration. The gene discussed is SMAD3; the disease is colorectal carcinoma.