There were still some limitations in our study. This study was a retrospective one with 377 patients in IHC and 93 patients in qPCR. Because of the difficulty and feasibility of GC tissues, we could only collect and test GC tissues with enough size to avoid the influence of postoperative pathological examination. Therefore, most GC tissues in qPCR were TNM III-IV stage. In addition, CD44 was another very important marker of GC and gastric CSCs and had been reported widely. In this study, we mainly focused on these six markers with fewer reports. Additionally, this study only enrolled the patients in our hospital, and the results should be still further demonstrated through external validation.