“…This result is consistent with the finding that CEACAM6 expression is an early event in human colorectal cancers and plays a role in both early carcinogenesis and subsequent tumor progression (Yasui et al, 2004;Jass, 2005). Previous studies using animal models support that CEACAM6 is functionally important in tumorigenesis, cellular adhesion, growth, invasion, and metastasis, and inhibition of CEACAM6 expression by RNA interference or antibody targeting improved survival of mice with metastases (Ilantzis et al, 2002;Blumenthal et al, 2005). Several experiments in vitro and in vivo demonstrated that CEACAM6 may impede myogenic, adipogenic, neurogenic, and colonic differentiation programs (Duxbury et al, 2004a,b), inhibit anoikis and apoptosis in colon and pancreatic cancer cells, disrupt cell polarization and tissue architecture (Soeth et al, 2001;Duxbury et al, 2004c), enhance liver metastasis (Capurso et al, 2006), increase chemoresistance (Duxbury et al, 2004d), and increase higher incidence of spontaneous colon tumor and lung tumor in a transgenic mouse model (Chan et al, 2006).…”