Interestingly, fecal CHI3L1 expression levels were almost undetectable in healthy individuals and a non-significant step-wise increase in IBD patients under the remission phase (CRP < 0.1), but the levels were significantly upregulated in IBD patients with dysplasia/adenocarcinoma compared with other adenoma or sporadic colorectal cancer patients, suggesting that fecal CHI3L1 levels might be a non-invasive and reliable biomarker for IBD-associated malignant changes of CECs under the remission phase of IBD [74]. Here, CHI3L1 is linked to inflammatory bowel disease.