Midkine is up-regulated in both cancerous and inflamed bowel, reflecting lymph node metastasis in colorectal cancer and clinical activity of ulcerative colitis

Midkine is involved in bowel inflammation in UC and lymph node metastasis in CRC, rendering midkine an attractive target for their treatment. Owing to midkine elevation in early postoperative period and its overexpression in tumor-adjacent tissue, targeting midkine might be considered also as a prevention of CRC recurrence following curative tumor resection.