Given that most cancers in humans arise from epithelial cells, rather than fibroblasts, to further explore the relationship between the downregulation of COPS5 observed in fibroblasts and tumor cells, we inhibited the expression of COPS5 in human proximal tubular epithelial cells (HK-2), a breast cancer cell line derived from mammary epithelium (MCF-7), and a pancreatic cancer cell line derived from the pancreatic duct epithelium (PANC-1). The gene discussed is COPS5; the disease is cancer.