Objective To summarize research progress of relationship between chloride intracellular channel protein 1 (CLIC1) and colonic cancer. Method The related literatures in recent years on the relationship between the CLIC1 and the colonic cancer were reviewed and analyzed. Results The CLIC1 could play its physiological function as a chloride ion channel, with a wide tissue distribution and high expression in many tumor tissues. The abnormal expression of CLIC1 could result in many diseases and participate in many processes such as the occurrence, development, metastasis, and treatment of the colonic cancer. Conclusions CLIC1 might be a biomarker for early diagnosis and a target for gene therapy of colonic cancer, key genes regulated its expression, signal transduction pathways involved in occurrence and progression of colonic cancer, and interaction with other related molecules are still unclear, and further study is needed.