Abstract Tremendous progress has been made in recent years towards the understanding, prevention and management of malignant disease, yet cancer remains a leading cause of global mortality and morbidity. Current approaches towards combating this disease include prevention, early detection and various treatment modalities. However, even with implementation of novel therapeutic options and preventative measures, most cancers are currently diagnosed at late stages, when treatment therapies are least effective. In a recent study published in BMC Medicine , Tan et al . performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to show that fascin-1, an actin-bundling protein, is associated with increased risk of mortality and metastasis in various cancer types. Although the study examined the association of fascin-1 with mortality, time-to-disease progression, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis in five major cancer types, the clinical implications of these findings are still unclear and many unanswered questions remain. Please see related research article here http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/52