Growing evidence indicates that inflammation contributes to cancer progression [1, 2], and several inflammatory markers, such as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), Glasgow prognostic score (GPS) and the C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio (CRP/ALB ratio), have been reported to be associated with the clinical outcomes in patients with various types of cancer, including colorectal cancer [3–10]. The gene discussed is ALB; the disease is cancer.