The statistical analysis revealed that in group II tumours the ratios (0.12 ± 0.17) were much lower than in group I tumours (0.42 ± 0.11, p < 0.01), indicating that the second inactivation hit, either mutation or allelic loss, may induce further repressed expression levels of NF2 transcripts, resulting in the universal loss of merlin expression in the ‘two-hits’ tumours. Here, NF2 is linked to neoplasm.