Recently, several clinicopathological studies have identified serum STC2 levels are elevated in patients with HCC, gastric cancer and colorectal cancer, and particularly high serum STC2 levels are associated with poor prognosis20, 50, 51, 52, indicating secreted STC2 could perform its biological functions through an endocrine mechanism at organism levels. This evidence concerns the gene STC2 and colorectal cancer.