Vascular endothelial growth factor is the best-characterised VEGF-A form the expression of which has been correlated, temporally and/or spatially, with the onset of angiogenesis in a variety of tumours including lung (Senger et al, 1986), breast (Krantz et al, 1999), ovarian (Shen et al, 2000) and colon cancer (Cascinu et al, 2000). The gene discussed is VEGFA; the disease is colonic neoplasm.