SMAD2 and cancer: In agreement with previous studies regarding cancer EV-mediated cell death in primary immune cells (Taylor et al. 2003; Abusamra et al. 2005; Kim et al. 2005), we observed that transcriptional profiles of primary cells treated with EVs from cancer cells triggered differential expression of several genes associated with the FAS/TGF-β-Smad2/3 apoptotic pathway.