However, interestingly, when calculating the FSTL1 mRNA expression ratio between the tumor and matched adjacent tissues (Table 1), the reduced ratio was positively correlated with FIGO stage (I-II, Δ= -2.08 ± 0.19; III-IV, Δ= -3.16 ± 0.46, Figure 2C), which suggested that CC patients with relatively lower FSTL1 mRNA transcription might tend to have a poor prognosis, including pelvic or retroperitoneal lymph node metastasis. Here, FSTL1 is linked to neoplasm.