NT5E and cancer: In our study, the results of enrichment analysis also demonstrated the critical role of NT5E as a regulator of cell-substrate junction, cell-substrate adherens junction, focal adhesion and external side of plasma membrane, and these functions are closely related to cell polarization and EMT (Thiery and Sleeman, 2006; Baronsky et al., 2017; Venhuizen et al., 2020), which plays an crucial role in cancer progression, especially tumor cell invasion (Son and Moon, 2010).