COL17A1 and cancer: The enhanced ability of cancer cells to adhere facilitates successful colonization, which is necessary for metastasis to occur, allowing cancer cells to colonize distant sites [46].To elucidate the underlying mechanisms by which PLEC facilitates cell adhesion, our investigation focuses on two adhesion-related molecules: COL17A1 and ITGβ4, based on bioinformatics predictions (Fig. 6D).