In validation of the clinical relevance of the RBPs found to be differentially expressed between the EpCAMhi/lo subpopulations derived from the SW480 and HCT116 cell lines, the RBP-coding genes QKI, RBM24, and MBNL2 (up in EpCAMlo), and ESRP1/2 and RBM47 (down in EpCAMlo) were found to be respectively up- and downregulated in the consensus molecular subtype 4 (CMS4) of colon cancers, responsible for ~25% of the cases and earmarked by poor prognosis and a pronounced mesenchymal component (Figure 1—figure supplement 1D; Guinney et al., 2015). This evidence concerns the gene QKI and colonic neoplasm.