SPARC and cancer: Recently, CAF-associated genes (CAFGs) in colorectal cancer (CRC) were defined based on two criteria: (1) strong association (R ≥ 0.9, as indicated by underlined genes throughout this study) with expression of SPARC, a well-established stromal marker [19], in the cancer stroma of CRC tumors (GSE35607), and (2) specificity to the stroma (stroma/epithelia expression ratio, SE ratio ≥ 10) similar to SPARC (SE = 17.2) [20].