CircRNA mitochondrial tRNA translation optimization 1 (circMTO1), a recently reported circular RNA originating from exons of MTO1 located on chromosome 6q13, was proved to be abnormally expressed in many malignant tumors, such as hepatocellular carcinoma, gastric carcinoma and colorectal cancer, resulting in tumor initiation and progression. This evidence concerns the gene MTO1 and colorectal cancer.