Pretreatment leading to the generation of cells with suppressed MITF expression appears to enhance tumour initiation, when eventually MITF expression can recover (Cheli et al., 2011, 2012), while continuous suppression of MITF is incompatible with tumour growth (Feige et al., 2011; Nakai et al., 2007). The gene discussed is MITF; the disease is neoplasm.