Flow cytometry results also proved that macrophage CD86 expression decreased while macrophage CD206 expression increased in the colon cancer microenvironment (Fig. 1C–F, Additional file 1: Fig. S1A), which demonstrated that macrophages were polarized toward the tumor-promoting M2-like phenotype in the colon cancer microenvironment to accelerate cancer progression. This evidence concerns the gene MRC1 and cancer.