Additionally, there was a progressive loss in CD36 expression from adenomas to carcinomas (Fig. 1d and Supplementary Fig. 1c), and we also found an intensive loss of CD36 in adenomas with malignant transformation (Supplementary Fig. 1b), so we speculated that CD36 loss might be an early event in CRC development and associated with the malignant transformation of adenomas. Here, CD36 is linked to adenoma.