CDH1 and cancer: E-cadherin is known to have tumour suppressor effects (Frixen et al, 1991; Christofori and Semb, 1999), and reduced expression during cancer development has been observed in many epithelial cancers including breast adenocarcinoma (Berx et al, 1995), ovarian carcinoma (Davies et al, 1998) and pancreatic adenocarcinoma (El-Hariry et al, 1999).