Through the Kaplan–Meier method, we found that the high expression of METTL3 in tumour-infiltrating immune cells was significantly correlated with poor DFS (P = 0.033) and OS (P = 0.019) (Additional file 2: Figure S2C and S2D) in patients with early disease stage, while there was no significant association between the high expression of METTL3 in tumour cells (P = 0.400 vs P = 0.183) and the number of CD33+ MDSCs (P = 0.393 vs P = 0.227) with the DFS and OS of patients with early-stage disease (Additional file 2: Figure S2A, S2B, S2E and S2F). The gene discussed is CD33; the disease is neoplasm.