Gene expression profiling of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database further established a significant correlation between high expression levels of ALPK2 and more advanced T stage, N stage, and pathological stage, in bladder cancer patients (Fig. 1B–D and Tables S3 and S4); these findings were confirmed by our own results, at least to some extent (Fig. 1A). Here, ALPK2 is linked to urinary bladder cancer.