The level of B7-H4 mRNA expression in TCGA pan-cancer was analyzed, which was shown in Fig. 1A. It can be found that both COAD and READ showed higher expression of B7-H4 mRNA in tumor tissues than in normal tissues although the overall expression of B7-H4 mRNA was not high (both P <  0.001). This evidence concerns the gene VTCN1 and neoplasm.