SLC1A4 and neoplasm: In 50 paired tumors and adjacent non-tumor tissues from TCGA COREAD database, 27 of 50 (54 %) CRC samples showed upregulation of SLC1A4, SLC1A5, SLC7A11 and SLC3A2 simultaneously (Fig. 3A), and 17 of 50 (34 %) CRC samples showed upregulation of three transporter genes (Fig. 3A).