Stromal cells, as an important component of TME, are involved in tumor progression and suppression of T-cell function, and high expression of ZNF503-AS2 promoted the activation of the stromal pathway (Fig 4B and 4C) and positively correlated with the enrichment of cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) (Fig 4D), which are a type of stromal cell, and high fibroblast levels predicted shorter OS than low fibroblast levels (Fig 4E). Here, ZNF503 is linked to cancer.