DCN and cancer: DCN inhibits EGFR signaling after transient activation, leading to increased p21 expression (Csordás et al., 2000; Hu et al., 2009; Moscatello et al., 1998; Santra et al., 1997; Seidler et al., 2006), and DCN binds and inhibits IGF1R and downstream AKT signaling in cancer cells (Iozzo et al., 2011; Morrione et al., 2013; Schönherr et al., 2005).