The presence of soluble transcripts of FGFR4 have also recently been described and implicated in the modulation of FGF in MCF7 breast cancer cells (Ezzat et al, 2001), suggesting that soluble FGFRs may be a feature of tumour cells where they disrupt the FGF/FGFR function. The gene discussed is FGFR4; the disease is breast carcinoma.