BACKGROUND: The stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase ( AIM: To explore the clinical and pathological significance of SCD expression in CRC tissues and to evaluate the affinity between nitidine chloride (NC) and SCD as a target. METHODS: Multi-center high-throughput data related to CRC were integrated to calculate the standardized mean difference of RESULTS: Data from 18 platforms, including 2482 CRC samples and 1334 non-cancerous colorectal tissue controls. SCD expression was significantly upregulated in CRC, with a standardized mean difference of 2.05 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.69-2.41]. The area under the pooled receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.95 (95%CI: 0.92-0.96), with a sensitivity of 0.86 (95%CI: 0.81-0.90) and a specificity of 0.90 (95%CI: 0.87-0.93). Positive and negative likelihood ratios were 9.02 (95%CI: 6.49-12.51) and 0.15 (95%CI: 0.10-0.22), respectively. High SCD protein expression was noted in 208 CRC patients, significantly associated with vascular invasion ( CONCLUSION: SCD promotes CRC cell growth and thus acts as an oncogenic factor, making it a potential therapeutic target for NC in CRC treatment.