LGALS1 and cancer: Our findings on the capacity of Gal-1 to activate β-catenin and induce CRC CIC features not only provide a mechanistic evidence for Gal-1 having direct interactions with CRC cells, but also support previously published clinical correlative findings of Gal-1 to be mainly expressed within the CRC stroma and not the cancer cell itself (38, 39), which we found as well (Figure 2A) (16).