In the genes of the MEmagenta module (Additional file 3: Table S2), we found that the known genes closely related to cancer stemness in non-prostate cancer, such as BRCA1 [33], EZH2 [33], FOXM1 [34], CDC20 [35], and CDCA8 [36], were all clustered in this module, indicating these genes were also closely related to the stemness of prostate cancer cells. Here, BRCA1 is linked to cancer.