Moreover, circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters that contain a group of cells with intact epithelial junctions are more prevalent than single CTCs lacking E-cadherin expression in the blood of cancer patients (Friedl et al., 2012; Aceto et al., 2014), suggesting that retention of E-cadherin is common during key stages of metastatic spread. This evidence concerns the gene CDH1 and neoplasm.