CD44 and colorectal cancer: As expected, all three genes are highly expressed in SW480 cells (25×, 6× and ~100× higher, respectively, than in unstimulated HEK 293 cells; Fig. 3D), although in HCT116 cells, only CD44 is overexpressed, while the transcript levels of AXIN2 and c-MYC are lower than in Wnt-stimulated 293 cells (Fig. 3D), in the case of AXIN2 due to epigenetic silencing by DNA methylation which has been observed in colorectal cancer cell lines with microsatellite instability, such as HCT116 [43].