While cancer treatment using conventional acupuncture needle (CN) exhibited reverse expressions for the molecular deregulation in CRC rats, treatment using nanoporous acupuncture needle (PN) showed significantly enhanced performance as confirmed from DEGs like ATF3, COL5A3, and SLC1A3 (Supplementary Table S4), previously reported as cancer-related biomarkers27,32,33. The gene discussed is ATF3; the disease is colorectal carcinoma.