Those results may suggest that the origin of ID1 expression is not only from cancer cells but also from host cells, such as CPCs in bone marrow and peripheral blood. In summary, we found that the ID1 mRNA expression in bone marrow and peripheral blood ATPase is a reliable predictive marker for lymph node metastasis and peritoneal dissemination, which indicates a poor prognostic outlook in gastric cancer. In addition, our findings suggest that the ID1 expression originates from not only the cancer cells but also the host side progenitor cells with the cancer-bearing condition. Therefore, we propose that targeting the ID1-expressing cells in the bone marrow and/or peripheral blood after surgery represents a new concept for the treatment and/or prevention of metastasis.

Supplementary Material Supplementary Figure 1: Click here for supplemental data(254K, ppt) Supplementary Figure 2: Click here for supplemental data(175K, ppt) Supplementary Figure 3: Click here for supplemental data(162K, ppt) Supplementary Figure 4: Click here for supplemental data(1.2M, ppt) Supplementary Figure Legends: Click here for supplemental data(24K, doc) Acknowledgments We thank T Shimooka, K Ogata, M Kasagi, Y Nakagawa and T Kawano for their technical assistance.

This work was supported in part by the following grants and foundations: CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, grant numbers 17109013, 18659384, 18390367, 18590333, 18015039, 19591509, 19390336, 20390360, 20591547, 20790961 and 20790960; The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas, grant number 18015039; Third Term Comprehensive Ten-year Strategy for Cancer Control, grant number 16271201; NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) Technological Development for Chromosome Analysis. Notes Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on British Journal of Cancer website (http://www.nature.com/bjc)
A 39�\year�\old man with a history of recurrent malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) of the small bowel, treated with imatinib, presented with a 2�\week history of shortness of breath, fluctuating fever, pancytopenia and bilateral airspace opacities. He was treated for pneumonia, but his condition deteriorated and he died 6 weeks after admission.

We present the subsequent postmortem examination findings. Clinical history This is the case of a 39�\year�\old man, with a medical history of malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) of the small bowel, resected 2.5 years before this episode. Local recurrence and liver metastases occurred 18 months from initial diagnosis. Imatinib AV-951 mesylate 400 mg once daily (Glivec; Novartis, Basel, Switzerland) was started, with a good clinical response (including a reduction in tumour size).