Peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase ICT1 acts as a codon-independent translation release factor that has lost all stop codon specificity and directs the termination of translation in mitochondrion, possibly in case of abortive elongation. The adult colon epithelium contains 3 differentiated cell types that arise from a multipotent stem cell. Deviation from the normal maturation pathway by neoplastic transformation is thought to initiate in stem cells or their early descendants. This neoplastic-induced deviation is marked by a change in expression of several mRNAs. ICT1 is a member of the prokaryotic/mitochondrial release factor family whose expression is downregulated over 4 fold upon colon stem cell differentiation. This downregulation of ICT1 could lead to its use as a marker for detection of colon carcinomas.