SLC3A2 and colorectal cancer: By analyzing the mRNA expression of SLC1A5, SLC3A2, and SLC7A5 in human colon cancer samples deposited in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database (n = 41 matched pairs of normal and colorectal cancer samples) (Supplemental Table S1), we found that all three genes had elevated expression in nearly all patients (Fig. 3A).