OVOL1 and breast cancer: In highly invasive breast cancer cells including MDA-MB-231, ECAD promoter is hypermethylated, resulting in the loss of E-cadherin expression.62ECAD expression was shown to be dramatically enhanced in MDA-MB-231 cells ectopically expressing OVOL1, which is consistent with the data shown by Roca and colleagues,35 indicating that OVOL1 may be engaged in regulating the methylation of ECAD promoter (Supplementary Fig. 3c, d).