In the larger cohort of tissue samples, the genes overlapping between colon and rectal cancer among the top 10 genes with highest alteration frequency were located in relevant signaling pathways, including the Wnt pathway (APC), RAS and PI3K pathways (KRAS, PIK3CA), TGFB (SMAD4), and NOTCH signaling pathway (SOX9), in addition to tumor suppressor genes such as TP53 and FBXW7 (Fig. S2A,C). This evidence concerns the gene SOX9 and rectal cancer.