ANKRD34B and neoplasm: To validate the expression of five hub ANKRD genes in TCGA-NSCLC datasets, we found that ANKRD29, ANKRD44 and ANKRD66 were significantly downregulated, while the mRNA expression levels of ANKRD34B and ANKRD40CL were upregulated in NSCLC tumor tissues compared to normal tissues in both paired and unpaired samples (Fig. 2A, B).