Fibroblasts isolated from tumour and NCL samples display transcriptional differences ex vivo, demonstrated in Fig. 4a, c, where several genes such as TGF-β1, a key regulator of fibroblast activation, and MMP9 are upregulated in the CAFs compared to NCL fibroblasts (comparison within tissue types shown in Supplementary Fig. S3). This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and neoplasm.