Our findings provide evidence that C/EBPβ expression was low in colon tumor patients and that it functioned as a tumor suppressor in HCT116 cells by suppressing of cell viability and inducing of cell apoptosis, which is consistent with results of a previous study showing that administration of full-length wild-type C/EBPβ significantly suppressed the growth of colon tumors by inducing tumor-cell apoptosis in a nude mouse model [29]. This evidence concerns the gene CEBPB and colonic neoplasm.