In agreement with the in vitro data, co-injection of NSCLC cells with MSI2-depleted CAFs in a xenograft mouse model resulted in decreased local and distant metastatic spreads of NSCLC cells as compared to co-injection with control CAFs (Fig. 3D–F) without affecting primary tumor growth (Fig. 3A–C, G; Additional file 2: Fig. S8). This evidence concerns the gene TBX1 and neoplasm.