When we used ‘The Cancer Genome Atlas’ (TCGA), the ‘Genotype-Tissue Expression’ (GTEx) dataset, and the ‘Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium’ (CPTAC) Data Portal to compare transcriptome and proteome expression between tumor and normal tissues, we found that both ZBTB48 and FTO had lower expression levels in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) tumor tissues in comparison with normal tissues (Additional file 1: Fig. S11B). Here, FTO is linked to cancer.