APLN and diffuse astrocytoma: For brain and CNS cancer, Sun Brain dataset [37] demonstrated that APLN is significantly increased in tissues of diffuse astrocytoma (fold change = 4.890, p = 2.83E − 5, Figure 1(b)), oligodendroglioma (fold change = 2.723, p = 1.66E − 6, Figure 1(c)), and anaplastic astrocytoma (fold change = 3.377, p = 3.48E − 5, Figure 1(d)), compared with corresponding normal brain tissues.