We hypothesized that the opposite results could be attributed to the following factors: first, there was much greater heterogeneity in CRC tissues than in CRC cells, and the results in CRC tissues reflected SPINK4 expression across the board, whereas the results in CRC cells only reflected a small portion of CRC; and second, SPINK4 expression may have been controlled by other factors in tissues but only had a minor impact on cell lines. The gene discussed is SPINK4; the disease is colorectal carcinoma.