Initiating our study, we found that many breast cancer cell lines revealed abolished SFRP2 expression presumably due to methylation of the SFRP2 promoter, since those cell lines lacking SFRP2 methylation abundantly expressed SFRP2 mRNA, whereas all cell lines lacking SFRP2 expression harbored SFRP2 promoter methylation. The gene discussed is SFRP2; the disease is breast carcinoma.