In our cluster analysis of the TCGA data of gastric cancer patients with N2 and N3 metastasis, the cases with high ERBB2 expression formed clusters with cases that showed high SMAD2 expression, but not with the cases with a high expression of TGFB1, which is an upstream cytokine of SMAD2 signaling. The gene discussed is SMAD2; the disease is gastric cancer.