To shed light onto the molecular mechanisms underlying the response of prostate epithelial cells to cadmium cytotoxic activity, and to assess the possible involvement of tumor suppressor proteins that are frequently altered or deregulated in most types of cancer, western blot analysis was used to detect the levels of total p53, p21 and p27 proteins in RWPE-1 and CTPE cells (Fig. 1C, C′). The gene discussed is TCHP; the disease is cancer.