Through immunofluorescent staining of SOX9 (intestinal stem/pluripotency marker) and MKI67 (marker of proliferation), we found that stem cell-like and actively dividing cells were located only in crypt regions of adjacent normal tissue whereas nearly all tumor epithelial cells expressed SOX9 or MKI67 in vivo (Fig. 2A). This evidence concerns the gene SOX9 and neoplasm.