Both CCN2 and type I collagen are known to be positively regulated in response to TGFβ via the Smad signalling pathway [14,20] and, since both CCN2 and type I collagen were negatively regulated in fibroblasts in response to tumour cell co-culture, we investigated the expression of the negative regulator of TGFβ signalling, Smad7. This evidence concerns the gene CCN2 and neoplasm.