Interestingly, and perhaps counter-intuitively, the maintenance of epithelial traits during collective cell migration, whereby E-cadherin-dependent cell–cell contacts are maintained, has only recently emerged but has already been shown to be involved in the progression of colorectal cancer93, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)94, pancreatic cancer95, and breast cancer36,96. The gene discussed is CDH1; the disease is head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.