SPARC and leukemia: Since aberrant methylation appears to play a role in CRC, and SPARC promoter hypermethylation appears to be responsible for its low expression in cancers of the pancreas (Sato et al, 2003), lung (Suzuki et al, 2005), and leukaemia (DiMartino et al, 2006), we decided to evaluate the possibility that: (1) this mechanism may also be involved in suppressing SPARC in CRCs; and (2) whether a demethylating agent could reverse the methylated state of the SPARC promoter in CRC, resulting in higher SPARC expression and greater sensitivity of tumours to chemotherapy.