It has been suggested that TICs or tumour stem cells are responsible for tumour recurrence, metastatic spread and resistance to treatment.56–58 Notably, we revealed that the C4 cluster housed the TICs based on single-cell algorithms rather than relying on predefined surface markers, which often target unrelated cells.59,60 Then, we confirmed that the cells within C4 showing high expression levels of CD36 were the tumour stem cells resulting in the formation of PA. The gene discussed is CD36; the disease is neoplasm.