Table 3. Clinicopathological correlations of candidate genes expression in CRC.

Variable	CXCL12	CXCR4	CXCR7	IL8	TGFB1	TGFBR1	TGFBR2	CDH17	CEA	FABP1	MUC2	PDCD4
Tumour diameter	0.481	0.860	0.035*	0.285	0.766	0.189	0.155	0.043*	0.213	0.449	0.271	0.674
Tumour thickness	0.094	0.242	0.036*	0.616	0.348	0.317	0.234	0.035*	0.282	0.049	0.654	0.052
Wall involvement	0.019*	0.005*	0.002*	0.055	0.201	0.000*	0.006*	0.002*	0.002*	0.949	0.400	0.886
Tumour location	0.020*	0.381	0.021*	0.285	0.347	0.621	0.003*	0.473	0.858	0.466	0.711	0.007*
Tumour differentiation	0.043*	0.043*	0.596	0.008*	0.335*	0.443	0.560	0.045*	0.016*	0.109	0.910	0.209
Mucin secretion	0.342	0.272	0.679	0.115	0.585	0.225	0.870	0.407	0.782	0.398	0.013*	0.217
Depth of invasion	0.001*	0.093	0.485	0.319	0.828	0.217	0.116	0.587	0.442	0.389	0.645	0.487
Lymph node status	0.040*	0.059	0.287	0.015*	0.238	0.688	0.049*	0.175	0.071	0.976	0.716	0.934
Distant metastasis	0.163	0.044*	0.138	0.062	0.861	0.161	0.235	0.434	0.547	0.373	0.938	0.443
Perineural invasion	0.389	0.126	0.904	0.670	0.792	985	0.030*	0.180	0.154	0.057	0.443	0.969
LV invasion	0.033*	0.132	0.020*	0.0687	0.035	0.208	0.012*	0.016*	0.019*	0.515	0.131	0.600
Tumour stage	0.016*	0.253	0.749	0.676	0.490	0.534	0.370	0.949	0.681	0.704	0.911	0.649
Recurrence	0.169	0.058	0.124	0.036*	0.476	0.126	0.213	0.891	0.801	0.170	0.685	0.023*

*Statistically significant (P<0.05)