We therefore compared the expression levels of cell-adhesion-associated genes (CD44, ICAM1, ITGAV, ITGB1, ITGB8, VCAM1, VCAN, CADM3 and CLDN1) in tumor-derived MCs and found the lowest expression in DES+ MCs (Fig. 6e and Extended Data Fig. 8d), suggesting that DES+ MCs were more likely to fall off into the ascites from tumor tissues. Here, VCAN is linked to neoplasm.