MDK and cancer: Some genes of notable interest included ANXA1, FKBP4, CD47 and MDK. These genes regulate cancer metastasis and are associated with poor prognosis in different malignancies (Gebauer et al., 2014; Shvartsur and Bonavida, 2015; Chai et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2020; Santiago-Sanchez et al., 2020; Nugteren and Samsom, 2021).