CHI3L1 and cancer: Over the past decades, multiple independent studies have demonstrated that high serum levels of YKL-40 are correlated with metastasis and poor survival in a variety of human carcinomas such as breast cancer (Jensen et al., 2003), colorectal cancer (Cintin et al., 1999), ovarian cancer (Hogdall et al., 2003), leukemia (Bergmann et al., 2005), lymphoma (Hottinger et al., 2011), and glioblastoma (GBM) (Pelloski et al., 2005), suggesting that serum levels of YKL-40 serve as a diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarker.