High-risk tumour depths (≥4mm) demonstrated a highly significant negative dependence on both PO4-SMAD2 (Table 2, C.C −0.214; p=0.001) and PO4-SMAD3 (Table 2, C.C −0.200; p=0.002) (Supplementary Figures 7A and 8) histoscores, suggesting a correlation between thicker tumours and lower SMAD2/3 phosphorylation. Here, SMAD2 is linked to neoplasm.