The remaining 11 genes were not considered because they were not differentially expressed in prostate cancer and para-cancerous tissues or had inconsistent expression and prognosis, including NFIB, RHOBTB3, SEMA3C, AKRIC3, NRP1, ALDH1A3, CTSC, IGFBP3, GLS, ARG2, COL5A1 (Fig. 2E, I, Additional file 1: Fig. S1C–G). Here, GLS is linked to prostate cancer.