Malignant cells (designated EP11-MSC-CLDN7) were found only in the tumor samples (Additional file 1: Fig. S10a-b) and expressed the highest levels of EPCAM (Additional file 1: Fig. S10e) although more sporadic expression of this marker was also seen in the other epithelial cell clusters including enterocytes and GMCs, indicating that our EPCAM cell depletion has been incomplete. This evidence concerns the gene CLDN7 and neoplasm.