Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) expression promotes the aggressiveness of cancer cells (Jaiswal et al. 2017) and can influence tumor progression by upregulating the expression of TSPAN13 (Jaiswal et al. 2018); alternatively, hTERT knockdown can reduce urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) expression and reverse the epithelial–interstitial transition of cancer cells (Jaiswal and Yadava 2019). Here, PLAU is linked to cancer.