SMAD4 and cervical carcinoma: Kloth et al. showed that weak cytoplasmic SMAD4 expression and absent nuclear SMAD4 expression were significantly correlated with poor-disease-free and overall 5-year survival in an immunohistochemical study on 117 primary cervical carcinomas, suggesting that SMAD4 is a target molecule for functional inactivation in cervical cancer [27] Blockade of TGFβ and its signaling pathway provide multiple therapeutic opportunities, which has lead to the development of TGFβ antibodies, antisense oligonucleotides and receptor kinase inhibitors [28].