ADAM17 and cancer: As TGF-β/Smad signalling is closely related to EMT in cancer [82], recent investigations reported that ADAM17 knockdown downregulated TGF-β and p-Smad2/3 in gastric carcinoma, while ADAM17 overexpression resulted in the upregulation of TGF-β and p-Smad2/3, but without having any effect on total Smad2/3 protein [7].