The present study observed that 69 cases (69%) among the 100 rectal cancers showed NGAL mRNA overexpression, a significantly elevated level of NGAL mRNA expression with real-time RT-PCR in rectal cancers compared with adjacent normal tissues, which is in agreement with the report of Nielsen et al. [20] Hypomethylation of the NGAL gene has been found both in pancreatic and mammary tumor cell lines, which may be responsible for its high expression levels [21]. Here, LCN2 is linked to rectal cancer.