Even in terms of possible carcinogenesis, despite the reported slight up‐regulation (only twofold) of elafin expression in colorectal cancer samples (Liu et al., 2019), tumour‐suppressive properties have been suggested for elafin in other forms of carcinoma (mammary), where it has been shown to counteract the mitogenic effects of up‐regulated neutrophil elastase (Caruso et al., 2015). This evidence concerns the gene PI3 and colorectal cancer.