By studying gene methylation distributions of 353 plasma samples from CRC patients of different tumour stages, Lin et al. found that AGBL4 (ATP/GTP binding protein-like 4) and FLI1 (friend leukaemia integration 1 transcription factor) methylation had the highest sensitivities in stage IV (77.8% and 81.0%, respectively) and lowest sensitivities in stage II (58.6% and 52.9%, respectively) [18]. The gene discussed is AGBL4; the disease is neoplasm.