In ovarian cancer, it has been shown that the oncogene HMGA2 directly binds to the promoter region of LUM leading to downregulation of LUM expression.18 Lumican can inhibit the activation of the focal adhesion kinase (FAK), resulting in less cell migration.36 Also, transformation induced by v-src and v-K-ras can be suppressed by lumican, and enhanced expression of lumican can inhibit growth and formation of metastasis by melanoma cells.20,30,37 Lumican expression in tumor stroma and tumor epithelial cells has been linked to both worse and better disease outcome in several cancers. This evidence concerns the gene LUM and melanoma.