Of note, VCAN+ AeM (M11), characterized by high expression of transcripts associated with monocytes (VCAN, S100A9 and S100A12)34, was clustered into the same branches with tumor-enriched C5-VCAN and ascites-enriched C1-THBS1 in HCC dataset and FCN1+ mono-like cells in CRC (Fig. 4c and Extended Data Fig. 6d). This evidence concerns the gene S100A9 and hepatocellular carcinoma.