According to the subgroup analyses for DFS, patients with age >60 years, male patients, patients without hypertension, patients without hyperlipidemia, patients with moderate or poor tumour differentiation, patients with tumour size ≤ 5 cm, patients with LYN metastasis and patients with CEA > 5 ng/mL were potentially suitable populations to use RGS1 > 3.980 or RGS1 > 3.685 for estimating DFS (supporting information Table S2). The gene discussed is RGS1; the disease is neoplasm.