Except for AL121899.1 and ELMO2, whose abilities to inhibit tumour growth were confirmed by functional experiments, many other genes in the core modules have been reported as tumour suppressor genes, such as SPINK8, CST6 and C2orf54,42, 43, 44 highlighting the ability of the core modules to indicate candidate cancer genes. Here, SPINK8 is linked to neoplasm.