Liu et al. (2020) identified two risky (TIMP1 and LZTS3) and five protective prognostic genes (AXIN2, CXCL1, ITLN1, CPT2, and CLDN23) which provided more evidence for further application of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in CRC. A prognostic signature consisting of nine genes was established with good performance for the prediction of survival in CRC patients (Chen et al., 2019). Here, ITLN1 is linked to colorectal carcinoma.