Moreover, the concentration of exogenous galectin-3 used in this study is close to the pathological level of circulating galectin-3 in metastatic cancer patients.24 The impact of exogenous galectin-3 on EGFR activation via interaction with MUC1 reported in this study is therefore likely to be particularly relevant to circulating tumour cells during metastasis. The gene discussed is MUC1; the disease is metastatic malignant neoplasm.