Consistent with a linkage between a more stem-like state in polyp epithelium and more advanced malignant continuum scores, ASCL2 expression gradually increases as polyps approach malignant transformation (Fig. 4h), again indicative of a ‘super stem’-like phenotype, wherein master regulators of stem state are even more active than they are in normal stem cells. The gene discussed is ASCL2; the disease is polyp.