With the development of high-throughput sequencing technologies in the recent years, researchers have confirmed some critical mutations underlying the pathogenic mechanism of colorectal cancer, including some well-known frequently-mutated oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes (such as APC, KPRS, PIK3CA, and TP53) and a large number of mutated genes with a low frequency94, 95, 96. The gene discussed is PIK3CA; the disease is colorectal cancer.