highly significantp < 0.001
p < 0.05 was considered significant (*), p < 0.01 was considered highly significant (**), and p < 0.001 was considered highly significant (***).
p < 0.05 was considered significant (*), p < 0.01 was considered highly significant (**), and p < 0.001 was considered highly significant (***).
As shown in Figure 5 , the relative expression of candidate genes displayed an increasing trend as cancer was at a more advanced stage, which indicated that these genes might be positively associated with tumor progression. 2.4.