Moreover, lumican was shown to affect the signaling of Snail, the main EMT trigger, cancer-facilitating molecules.Thus, when the Snail1 overexpressing B16F1 melanoma cells and the Mock-B16F1 cells were inoculated in Lum+/+ and Lum−/− mice, a significantly higher number of metastatic nodes were detected in the lungs of Lum−/− mice inoculated with Snail-overexpressing B16F1 cells.These data suggest that endogenous lumican of the wild-type mice markedly attenuates melanoma metastasis to the lungs. The gene discussed is LUM; the disease is melanoma.