AREG and neoplasm: Intriguingly, we found that some cytokines secreted by CAFs were also involved in senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) factors which can be upregulated upon senescence, influence immune cell functions, and play tumor-promoting roles in the TME (Ruhland and Alspach, 2021), such as IL6, AREG, CXCL12, TGFβ, VEGF, and CCL2. These findings indicated that the aging CAF score developed by our study was genetically correlated with aging CAFs.