To reveal whether RFC4-induced metastasis and stemness properties as identified above in NSCLC are clinically relevant, analysis of the RNA-seq profiles of the TCGA lung cancer datasets showed a significant correlation between the expression levels of RFC4 and molecular signatures related to cancer metastasis and stemness (Fig. 7a and Supplementary Fig. 9a). This evidence concerns the gene RFC4 and non-small cell lung carcinoma.