To investigate the importance of circulating CAF levels in Met-pa during cancer prognosis, blood samples were collected from 45 patients from which CAFs were isolated and enumerated using the following criteria: (i) negative for CD45, (ii) positive for α-Smooth Muscle Actin (α-SMA) and (iii) intact for nuclear staining via DAPI. The gene discussed is ACTA1; the disease is cancer.