TIMP3 and neoplasm: Possible explanations include: 1) methylator phenotype-positive tumors tend to be hypermethylated in promoter regions of other genes, including tumor suppressor genes (such as APC, CDH1, TIMP3, and others) [4]; 2) methylator phenotype-positive tumors tend to undergo hMLH1 gene inactivation via promoter hypermethylation.