To evaluate the degree in expression of CD44 and VEGF in the tumor periphery, the periphery/core (P/C) ratio, which was obtained by calculating the ratio of mRNA expression of these molecules in the tumor periphery to that in the tumor core, was adopted for CD44, and the amount of mRNA was used for VEGF as described in our previous study11 (Figure 1B,C) (Table 1). Here, CD44 is linked to neoplasm.