However, these figures should be integrated into the clinical context of the patient, taking into account the ubiquity of GDF-15’s expression and the fact that it is upregulated in a variety of potentially fatal malignancies (e.g., pancreatic, gastric, ovarian, breast, melanoma, glioblastoma, etc.)or autoimmune diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis). This evidence concerns the gene GDF15 and autoimmune disease.