To be specific, Syk knockdown in more well-differentiated cancers was found to enhance invasive/anchorage-independent growth and motility (Fei et al. 2013) whilst its re-introduction in more malignant, invasive cancer cells decreased cancer malignancy through increasing adhesion and reducing tumour cell growth, motility, invasion and metastasis (Ogane et al. 2009; Fei et al. 2013; Peng et al. 2013; Krisenko and Geahlen 2015). The gene discussed is SYK; the disease is cancer.