SPP1 and cancer: Considering the tumor heterogeneity of gastric cancer, this novel finding may result from the intertumor heterogeneity of patients between our cohort and the cohort of Bartolomeo et al. Interestingly, the AJCC TNM staging systems of malignant tumors are essential in assessing the strategy of adjuvant chemotherapy, and we conjecture that SPP1 may have the potential to be a predictor participating in the selection of adjuvant chemotherapy strategies in GC.