The genes COL1A2, FSTL1, LUM, and SPARC encode proteins that structurally compose the ECM and that are frequently altered in cancer, conferring a poor prognosis and invasive phenotypes (Barker et al., 2005; Lee et al., 2009; Shieh et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2022). The gene discussed is FSTL1; the disease is cancer.