Authors' reply - Re: Wang et al. Controversial role of the possible oxyntic stem cell marker ASPM in gastric cancer.

We thank Wang et al for their interest in our article ‘Genome-wide analysis of the oxyntic proliferative isthmus zone reveals ASPM as a possible gastric stem/progenitor cell marker over-expressed in cancer’ [1]. In their letter to the editor, ‘Controversial role of the possible oxyntic stem cell marker ASPM in gastric cancer’, Wang et al raise questions about the role of ASPM as a possible novel oxyntic stem/progenitor cell marker in gastric carcinogenesis, based on additional dataset analysis. They have re-analysed ASPM in dataset GSE13911 and, similarly to us, found that ASPM is more highly expressed in gastric cancer samples than in normal mucosa. However, in a further subanalysis using the TCGA database [2], they found significantly (p= 0.0204) lower expression of ASPM in poorly than in moderately differentiated tumours. Then, using the Kaplan–Meier Plotter online tool (http://kmplot.com/ analysis/) [3], they showed that patients with gastric