All the analyses hereby described the evidence that the serum sE-cad levels generally increase in many cases concomitant to the decrease in full length E-cad expression in tissues, sE-cad, thus behaving like a putative “disease sentinel.” Because of its stability in serum, sE-cad accumulating in the blood may serve as sensitive indicator of tumor-associated proteolysis and potential candidate for an early disease detection. The gene discussed is CDH1; the disease is neoplasm.