Furthermore, in gene-expression datasets of breast cancer samples we observed that patients with high levels of HMGA1, FOXM1 or VEGFA had a statistically significant lower survival probability in terms of distant metastasis-free survival and relapse-free survival with respect to HMGA1, FOXM1 and VEGFA low expression patient groups (Additional file 11: Figure S8). The gene discussed is HMGA1; the disease is breast carcinoma.