ENG and gastric cancer: By analyzing the co-expression correlation between CPT1A, IL-8, CXCL5, STC1 and CD44 in stomach cancer tissues through TCGA database, we found that these genes except CXCL5 were positively correlated with CD44 and were positively associated with at least one MSC markers (ENG, THY1, NT5E) (Additional file 10: Fig. S6A–D).