RNA was extracted from 100 cells purified from primary CRCs, and directly collected into TRIzol (Invitrogen). The expression level of 754 miRNAs was measured by multiplex semi-quantitative real-time PCR (TaqMan™ Array Human MicroRNA A+B Cards Set v3.0 with Megaplex™ RT Primers, Human Pool Set v3.0; Thermo Fisher Scientific) as previously described (5 (link)). Results were normalized to RNU48 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) and analyzed for statistical significance using the Mann-Whitney U-test.