Furthermore, our investigation extended to the protein expression levels of some select core risk genes, including AP2M1, LY6E, ARL4C, ARPC1B and TERF2IP by immunohistochemical analysis of CRC tissues alongside adjacent normal tissues which was in accordance with RNA level (Fig. 5E–I, Additional file 1: Fig. S3F). Here, TERF2IP is linked to colorectal carcinoma.