Furthermore, we screened 80 examples of colorectal cancer progression tissue samples and showed that PITA protein was upregulated in adenocarcinoma, adenosquamous carcinoma and squamous-cell carcinoma compared with matched adjacent normal tissues, and PISA protein was upregulated in squamous-cell carcinoma compared with matched adjacent normal tissues (Fig. 8h, i). Here, ZNF568 is linked to adenosquamous carcinoma.