The reduced survival time is thought to be caused by an increase in the rate of metastasis of AGR2-expressing cancers, as a number of studies have shown an increase in AGR2 expression in metastatic cells relative to their primary tumours [16, 25–31] and importantly, AGR2 was able to induce metastasis of a benign rat mammary cell line when cells overexpressing AGR2 were injected into syngeneic rats [16]. The gene discussed is AGR2; the disease is cancer.