Phalloidin staining showed an increase in the number of actin stress fibres after Rhoj KD, consistent with previous reports16,19 (Extended Data Fig. 5g).Using western blotting, we validated the higher expression of proteins regulating DNA replication (POLD, PCNA) and repair (pRPA2) as well as actin cytoskeleton (N-WASP) in EPCAM− tumour cells compared with in EPCAM+ tumour cells, and their downregulation in EPCAM−Rhoj-KO cells (Extended Data Fig. 5h–k). This evidence concerns the gene POLD1 and neoplasm.