Regions of the short arm of chromosome 8 are frequently deleted in a range of solid tumors, indicating that tumor suppressor genes reside at these loci. Caldwell et al. have shown frequent interstitial deletions in a series of prostate cancers, squamous cell head and neck cancers and colorectal carcinomas.  There was also an association between 8p11.2 deletion and local invasion.
The first coding exon contains the whole of the frizzled-related cysteine rich domain (CRD), while the third exon (COOH-terminal domain) contains the netrin-related domain.  Netrin is a regulator of apoptosis; the SFRP1 netrin-related motif is also found in a range of other proteins that is thought to mediate protein-protein interactions.  The middle exon most likely represents a spacer between the first and third exon. There are 2 introns present within the coding sequence of SFRP1.