In the Tumour Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER; http://timer.cistrome.org/) [23], a high IMP3 mRNA expression was found in different solid human cancers, including CRC, compared with the corresponding normal tissues (Supplementary Fig. 1A), as well as in the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA; http://gepia.cancer-pku.cn/index.html) [24] and UALCAN databases (http://ualcan.path.uab.edu/) [25] (Supplementary Fig. 1B, C). This evidence concerns the gene IMP3 and neoplasm.