To this end, we adopted the CanPatrolTM CTC technique (SurExam, Guangzhou, China) [37], which employs a filter-based CTC capture method followed by RNA in situ hybridization (ISH), to evaluate the feasibility of using multiple epithelial (EpCAM and CK8/18/19) and mesenchymal (VIM, TWIST1, AKT2 and SNAI1) markers to classify CTCs in a large cohort (n = 1203) of Chinese patients with CRC. The gene discussed is AKT2; the disease is colorectal carcinoma.