Remarkably, clearly increased MACC1 levels were detected in newly diagnosed cancer patients with synchronous metastasis (stage IV), compared to cancer patients without distant metastases (stages I-III): for colorectal (Fig. 2A), colon (Fig. 2B), and rectal cancer (Fig. 2C), medians 0.937, 2.249, and 0.829 MACC1 mRNA expression/% calibrator in metastasized patients, compared to 0.61, 0.78, and 0.559 MACC1 mRNA expression/% calibrator in patients without distant metastases (P = .006, P = .176, and P = .041 for colorectal, colon, and rectal cancer patients, respectively). The gene discussed is MACC1; the disease is cancer.