In patients with breast cancer, the presence of CD44+/CD24−/low cells did not provide clinically relevant prognostic information notwithstanding the finding that the fraction of CD44+/CD24−/low cells was higher in tumors developing distant metastasis than in those that did not [10] and was detected in 50/50 bone marrow specimens with cytokeratin-positive cells, that is, in the so-called disseminated tumor cells [8]. The gene discussed is CD44; the disease is breast cancer.