The extracellular matrix, which comprises collagens, fibronectin, laminins, polysaccharides, and proteoglycans, plays a key role in these processes, and there is a large and rapidly growing literature on the molecules that mediate the influence of the extracellular matrix on the greater stiffness of stroma associated with breast cancer compared to normal breast tissue (see [1], [21], [22] for reviews). The gene discussed is LAMB2; the disease is breast carcinoma.