It may also be that versican influences the poor penetrance of desmoplastic stroma that prevents chemo- and immune-therapeutic agents from reaching the tumour itself, however it remains unclear if this is the result of the physical stiffness of the tissue forming a barrier, or via receptor ligand interactions between molecular patterns on the mesh of matrisome proteins and complementary receptors on immune cell infiltrate, or a combination of the two. This evidence concerns the gene VCAN and neoplasm.