Our results showed that the expression of AKR1C3 was related to the infiltration level of many immune cells, such as Th17 cells, NK cells, eosinophils and mast cells (Fig. 6A), but negatively correlated with the stromal score and ESTIMATE score of GC samples in the TCGA cohort (Fig. 6B). Here, AKR1C3 is linked to gastric cancer.