Canonical TGF‐β/Smad4 signaling has pleiotropic functions, among which, growth arrest is the main response induced in normal epithelia or early carcinomas, whereas promotion of invasion and metastasis behaviors prevails in advanced tumors (Coulouarn et al., 2008; Dupont et al., 2009; Reichl et al., 2015). The gene discussed is SMAD4; the disease is carcinoma.