Analyzing microarray-based gene expression data for bladder cancer study64, we found PPARG is strongly associated with a non-muscle invasive phenotype as compared to muscle-invasive phenotype in multiple cohorts, while SMAD3 has borderline contrarian pattern in those (Fig. 6a), which might be due to the fact that core EMT regulators are often co-expressed in various combinations in order to orchestrate complex EMT programs depending on the specific biological context. This evidence concerns the gene SMAD3 and urinary bladder carcinoma.