Moreover, the Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that advanced CRC patients with vimentin+ CTCs had significantly shorter PFS and OS compared with CK+ CTCs (6 vs. 11 months, P = 0.0314; 11 vs. 20 months, P = 0.0147) (Fig. 4e, f). This evidence concerns the gene VIM and colorectal carcinoma.