The protein encoded by this gene is a tumor suppressor, with lowered expression levels found in gastric, renal, colorectal, lung, and breast cancer tissues. The promoter of this gene is frequently hypermethylated in these cancer tissues, although the hypermethylation does not appear to be the cause of the reduced expression of this gene. Several transcript variants encoding the same protein have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2015].