In colorectal adenoma and CRC tissues, the rates of strongly positive nuclear HMGB1 expression were significantly higher than the rate in normal colorectal tissue, while the rate was slightly higher in colorectal adenoma than in CRC tissue, suggesting that the enhanced expression of nuclear HMGB1 occurs in the early stage of colorectal neoplastic lesions. Here, HMGB1 is linked to colorectal adenoma.