We and others have previously reported a significant association between TGFβ signalling and the levels of both tumour-infiltrating fibroblasts and cytotoxic immune cells in later-stage disease;16,21,31 however, we did not observe such an association in our early-stage pT1 tumours (Fig. 1g, rho = −0.1, p = 0.6 and Supplementary Fig. 1e, r = 0.58, p < 2.2e-16). The gene discussed is TGFB1; the disease is neoplasm.