SYK and cancer: Hypermethylation of the SYK promoter is associated with lower SYK mRNA and poor prognosis and metastasis in various cancers including breast, lung, pancreatic, urinary bladder cancers, mesothelioma, and melanoma; in vitro experiments confirm that re-expression of SYK by transfection or inhibitors of hypermethylation reverses the invasive and metastatic phenotype ([7]–[15] and for review [5]).