POSTN and cancer: Thirty genes were found to be closely related to CTHRC1, many of which are involved in cancer biology, including TGFBR1, TGFBR2, TGFB1, MMP2, MMP14, TIMP1, TIM3, WNT5A, ENG, COL1A1, COL1A2, and POSTN (Fig. 5A).