Many immunohistochemical studies evaluating E-cadherin expression in tumour tissues have demonstrated that reduced expression of E-cadherin is frequently observed in cancer progression (Katagiri et al, 1995; Lipponen and Eskelinen, 1995; Yonemura et al, 1995; Tamura et al, 1996; Nakanishi et al, 1997; Umbas et al, 1997; Bankfalvi et al, 1999; Ghadimi et al, 1999; Gofuku et al, 1999; Zheng et al, 1999; Kase et al, 2000). Here, CDH1 is linked to cancer.