In colon cancer patients, expression of CTHRC1 was positively correlated with tumor infiltration depth (P ═ 0.034) and clinical stage (P ═ 0.034), but no significant correlation was found with patients’ age, gender, lymph node metastasis, or distant metastasis (P>0.05) (Table 6). Here, CTHRC1 is linked to metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.