When we investigated whether increased CRP is a marker of colonic inflammation, we found no such association in a colonoscopy-based study [43•], which implies that CRP may be marking systemic factors (e.g., obesity) that influence colorectal cancer risk or that the observational associations between CRP and colorectal cancer may be afflicted by biases. The gene discussed is CRP; the disease is obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.