Hazard ratio estimates for CXCL11-based stratification remained essentially unchanged and retained significance after consecutive pair-wise adjustment for the most important clinical-pathological variables, which are currently used for risk evaluation in colorectal cancer: tumor staging (UICC/AJCC, based on pTNM categories), poor histological differentiation (tumor grading), lymphatic invasion, as well as age and sex of the patients as further putative confounding variables (Table 1). The gene discussed is CXCL11; the disease is colorectal cancer.