RBM6 and neoplasm: Since no RBM6-RBM5 protein product was observed, it was tempting to speculate that either (1) the novel chimeric transcripts function at the mRNA level, or (2) the chimeric RNA's are "non-functional", but the physical act of chimeric transcription functions to inhibit, or at least downregulate, expression of the two individual genes, RBM6 and RBM5. We therefore initiated our investigation by examining the relationship between expression of RBM6 and RBM5 in tumour samples that were either chimeric positive or negative.