Consistent with a pro-oncogenic role for TGFβ1 in late-stage cancer, elevated levels of TGFβ1 are often observed in advanced carcinomas, and have been correlated with increased tumour invasiveness and disease progression in a variety of tumours such as malignant melanoma (Moretti et al, 1999) and colonic (Tsushima et al, 1996), ovarian (Bristow et al, 1999), and prostatic (Shariat et al, 2004) cancers. The gene discussed is TGFB1; the disease is carcinoma.