In the GSEA results, enriched pathways, such as the EMT, hypoxia, KRAS signaling, angiogenesis, Notch and Hedgehog signaling pathways, were significantly positively associated with ISM1, and most of these pathways are vital to cell proliferation, migration and resistance in cancer (Wang et al., 2020; Andrysik et al., 2021; Cai et al., 2021), including CRC. The gene discussed is ISM1; the disease is cancer.