Overexpression of TGF-β is reported to be correlated with poor prognosis of gastric tumours (Saito et al, 2000), especially scirrhous gastric carcinoma (Kinugasa et al, 1998), suggesting that TGF-β signalling might have an important role in the progression of scirrhous gastric cancer cells (Inoue et al, 1997; Kinugasa et al, 1998; Kawajiri et al, 2008). Here, TGFB1 is linked to gastric cancer.