Therefore, the results of the present study suggest that metastatic cancer cells, which may consist of a greater number of cancer stem-like cells, are not necessarily resistant to NK cell-mediated lysis, and the levels of NKG2D ligands and TRAIL receptors may affect the susceptibility of highly metastatic colon cancer cells to NK-mediated lysis. The gene discussed is KLRK1; the disease is malignant colon neoplasm.