In human patients, consistent with our results supporting a role for THBS1 in tumour initiation but not progression (Figure 6), low expression of THBS1 has been found to correlate with more advanced grades of liver metastases derived from colorectal cancer after surgery, presence of lymph node metastases, and poor prognosis (Teraoku et al., 2016). The gene discussed is THBS1; the disease is colorectal cancer.