Although the TGF-β1 and SMAD2 gene expression levels were not associated with the in vivo response, high TGF-βRI transcript levels and pSMAD2 protein levels were found to be correlated with the in vivo anti-tumor responses (Spearman correlation 0.67, p-value = 0.017 and Spearman correlation 0.68, p-value = 0.025, respectively). This evidence concerns the gene SMAD2 and neoplasm.