HOXB13 and neoplasm: Nude mice inoculated with HCT116/sh-HOXB13 cells had an increased tumor load compared with control shRNA-transfected xenograft tumors at 20 days (67.5 ± 6.6 vs 40 ± 5.4, respectively, P < 0.05) and 30 days (300 ± 36.74 vs 130.8 ± 15.28, respectively, P < 0.05) after inoculation (Fig. 4a, b).