“…Therefore, for all these reasons, we realize that COL1A2, COL3A1, COL5A2, ITGA5, ITGAV, and ITGB1 genes expression provide important predictive information about metastatic-free and overall survival in PNENs and our results now confirm the predictive importance of COL and ITG genes in PNENs. Whereas prior studies about lung cancer were able to show a significant relationship between COL5A2, ITGA5, ITGAV, and ITGB1 gene expression only in nonsmall cell lung cancer (54)(55)(56)(57)(58), our results suggest that COL5A2, ITGA5, and ITGB1 expression in PNENs, used as co-dependent variables, provide more information about the risk of metastasis and overall survival than does pathological stage. Moreover, the predictive value of COL5A2, ITGA5, and ITGB1 expression in PNENs persisted in the subset of patients with pathological stage I and II.…”