While the mutant tumor cells from metastases in our study were also captured using anti-EpCAM magnetic beads, these cells may potentially have been seeded from EpCAM-negative CTCs that had undergone mesenchymal-epithelial-transition after lodging and growing in the metastatic site, with re-expression of EpCAM on their cell surface. The gene discussed is EPCAM; the disease is neoplasm.