Our initial analysis revealed that the top seven mutated genes, with mutation rates ≥10 % in 4477 samples of 4255 patients from the 15 CRC datasets included, were TP53 (67 %), APC (66 %), KRAS (43 %), PIK3CA (18 %), FBXW7 (14 %), SMAD4 (14 %) and BRAF (10 %). Here, APC is linked to colorectal carcinoma.