We observed that rh-TSP-4 treatment increased the proliferation, invasion, EMT as well as elevated cancer stem-like features of GBC-SD and NOZ cells, while the rh-TSP-4-mediated induction of these effects were abolished by HSF1 silencing (Fig. 5b-e and Additional file 7: Fig. S4B-S4E). The gene discussed is HSF1; the disease is cancer.