However our investigation of the functional significance of LGR5 expression in the context of colorectal cancer cell lines show that, rather than contributing to the tumour phenotype, LGR5 antagonizes many of the accepted characteristics of tumour cells such as anchorage-independent growth, loss of cell-cell adhesion, enhanced migration and a switch from the epithelial to a more mesenchymal phenotype. Here, LGR5 is linked to colorectal cancer.