NOS2 and colon adenocarcinoma: As shown in Fig. 2A, top 20 genes correlated with SOX9 in COAD samples were selected and the results of qRT-PCR indicated that four (NOS2, FOS, PVRL1, and FARSA-AS1) among the 20 genes presented upregulation in SW1116 cells compared to NCM-460 cells.