TGFB1 and neoplasm: Furthermore, activation of TGF-β signaling has been demonstrated to expedite lymphatic metastasis of tumors via varying mechanisms (Liu et al. 2014, Huang et al. 2017, Shu et al. 2017), where TGF-β-induced dramatical upregulation of VEGFC in tumor cells was regarded as the primary contributor (Liu et al. 2014).