Our bioinformatics results proposed that 13 genes (IGFBP3, S100A13, MMP1, CDKN2A, MYL9, SOX4, FKBP4, DUSP4, GLRX, UBE2L6, NFATC4, NUCB2) were upregulated, whereas three genes (SFN, IER3, ALDOA) were downregulated in colorectal cancer (Table S4 in Additional File 1). Here, SFN is linked to colorectal cancer.