CDKN1A and carcinoma: To further examine the role of p21 in brachyury-mediated resistance to immune-mediated killing of carcinoma cells, a non-clonal, heterogeneous population of parental H460 cells characterized by very high levels of brachyury expression and a mesenchymal phenotype, were transfected with an empty vector (pCMV) or a plasmid encoding human p21 under the control of the CMV promoter (Figure 3A).