Ni S, et al. - Researchers aimed to determine the possible role of collagen triple helix repeat containing 1 (CTHRC1: a cancer-related factor) in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) via analyzing associations between CTHRC1 and both clinicopathologic variables and outcomes. Participants were 216 patients who were diagnosed with primary CRC and had surgical resection for between April 2012 and December 2016. In this study, CRC tissues showed upregulation of both CTHRC1 mRNA and protein levels vs paired noncancerous tissues. Additionally, patients with CRC (particularly colon cancer) displayed poor prognosis in correlation with the overexpression of CTHRC1. CTHRC1 was also found to provoke epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and promote cell motility in CRC cells. A possible effective therapeutic treatment for patients with CRC was seen via CTHRC1 promoting EMT by activating transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling.