The mechanism of downregulation of ADAMTS-8 in these brain tumours is unknown, but seems unlikely to be hypermethylation of the promoter region as observed in 58% (29 out of 50) of NSCLC (Dunn et al, 2004), since only one out of 24 tumours showed methylation using our assay. The gene discussed is ADAMTS8; the disease is brain neoplasm.