As tumours evolve toward a metastatic phenotype and interfere with other endogenous or exogenous factors, IL-6 activity on cancer cells and their environment might actually shift from growth inhibition and differentiation to proliferation and antiapoptosis (Lu and Kerbel, 1993; Chiu et al, 1996; Badache and Hynes, 2001). The gene discussed is IL6; the disease is cancer.