The intermediate state cancer cells referred to tumor components that were morphologically intermediate between differentiated adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine carcinoma but did not express the well-known markers of either differentiated adenocarcinoma (MUC5AC and MUC6) or neuroendocrine carcinoma (Syn and CgA), although it can be regarded as differentiated adenocarcinoma in pathological examination (Fig. 5A). Here, MUC5AC is linked to cancer.