Inoue C, et al. - Different markers identifying cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been suggested, but the associations between these markers and their clinicopathological significance are largely unknown, so researchers assessed immunohistochemically the expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), podoplanin, and periostin among these proposed markers in 92 cases of lung adenocarcinoma. High Ki-67 labelling index (LI), lymph node metastasis, and low 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of the patients was significantly associated with the comparative abundance of α-SMA, while that of podoplanin was significantly linked with high pT and Ki-67 LI, distant metastasis, and low 5-year OS rate, and that of periostin with high pT and Ki-67 LI. Among groups (α-SMA/podoplanin, α-SMA/periostin, and periostin/podoplanin) with significance, the α-SMA high/podoplanin high group was related to the lowest survival rate (53.3%). Study outcomes first exhibited the heterogeneity of CAFs in human lung adenocarcinoma tissue, and analysis using multiple CAF markers is generally required to study the clinical significance of CAFs in clinical materials.