Further work using quantitative reverse PCR revealed that the expression of the Rhomboid 5 Homolog 2 (RHBDF2) gene associated with TGF-β1 activity was increased in DGC cells, and increased expression of RHBDF2 gene was observed after incubation of non-cancer fibroblasts with interleukin 1 alpha (IL-1α), IL-β or TNF, secreted by DGCs. Here, RHBDF2 is linked to cancer.