Surprisingly, Hakai, a well-known E3 ligase for E-cadherin, was almost undetectable in 60 lung adenocarcinomas and was not linked to E-cadherin downregulation (Additional file 2: Table S1and Fig. 1a), raising the question of whether Hakai can dampen E-cadherin expression in lung adenocarcinoma via c-Src activation. This evidence concerns the gene CDH1 and lung adenocarcinoma.