Another study has shown that hedgehog pathway proteins (such as SHH, SMO, and GLI1) and their downstream effectors are upregulated in CML patients in comparison to normal subjects, and the same proteins are higher in blast crisis patient's cells than in chronic phase cells suggesting a key role that the hedgehog pathway might play in CML blastic transformation of CML patients [77]. Here, SHH is linked to chronic myelogenous leukemia, BCR-ABL1 positive.