GJA1 and cancer: Alternations of Cx43 expression and function are associated with numerous diseases including cardiac arrhythmias (Luke and Saffitz, 1991; Smith et al., 1991; Beardslee et al., 1998), cancer (Solan et al., 2012), ischemic injury (Beardslee et al., 2000), connective tissue disease (Paznekas et al., 2003), and heart failure (Akar et al., 2007; Basheer and Shaw, 2016).