VCAN and neoplasm: Our signature included many known proteins of the desmoplastic stroma previously linked to poor patient outcome (Cheon et al, 2014) (e.g., VCAN, THBS2, and TNC), pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL18), immune response and complement system modulators (e.g., F13A1, FCGR1A, and FCER1G) and markers of tumor promoting cell-types (e.g., NNMT for CAFs and CD163 and MSR1 for M2-polarized TAMs)(Eckert et al, 2019; Gudgeon et al, 2022; Lecker et al, 2021) (Figs. 5G and S5B,C; Dataset EV16).