-CRC tissues contain distinct cell populations whose transcriptional identities mirror those of the different cellular lineages in healthy colon-perturbations in gene expression programs linked to multi-lineage differentiation strongly associate with patient survival-development of two-gene classifier systems (KRT20 vs. CA1, MS4A12, CD177, SLC26A3) that predict clinical outcomes with hazard-ratios superior to pathological grade. This evidence concerns the gene MS4A12 and colorectal carcinoma.