Chronic intestinal inflammation in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) significantly increases the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). Tuft cells in the intestine marked by doublecortin-like kinase-1 (DCLK1), are long-lived chemosensory cells with newly identified roles in colitis as epithelial ablation of DCLK1 worsens disease outcome. DCLK1 exists in long and short isoforms (DCLK1-L and DCLK1-S). Hypermethylation of DCLK1 alpha promoter encoding DCLK1-L particularly in CRC, allows switching to the DCLK1-S isoform that confers a more invasive tumor phenotype.