WASF3 is associated with tumour invasiveness and confers a poor prognosis in human gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most prevalent cancers in China and approximately half of GC patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage (1,2). However, distant metastasis (liver, peritoneal, lymph node metastasis and etc.) and recurrence after operation might be the main cause of death associated with GC (3,4). Clinical staging and histopathological criteria are the main methods to evaluate the prognosis of GC patients. The patients with advanced stage have poor prognosis under the active treatment (5). Therefore, identification of progression related molecules can help us find clues for accurate prognosis assessment, effective individualized treatment and improvement patient outcome