To investigate if this is a fortuitous correlation or if METCAM/MUC18 actually plays a role in the progression of the cancer, we tested effects of enforced expression of METCAM/MUC18 on in vitro behaviors, in vivo tumorigenesis, and in vivo malignant progression of human ovarian cancer SK-OV-3 cells, which minimally expressed this protein. The gene discussed is MCAM; the disease is ovarian carcinoma.