In line with this data, and importantly in the setting of the human disease, Maheswaran and colleagues found that mesenchymal cells expressing known EMT regulators, including TGF-β pathway components and the FOXC1 transcription factor, were highly enriched in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and these mesenchymal CTCs were associated with disease progression (Yu et al., 2013). This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and neoplasm.