Recent microassay analysis revealed that amplification of EGFR gene was found in many tumours including ovarian cancer (Lei et al, 1999), glioblastoma (Hui et al, 2001), pancreatic cancer (Bruell et al, 2003; Schreiner et al, 2003), gastric cancer (Garcia et al, 2003), prostate cancer (Skacel et al., 2001), and lung adenocarcinoma and head/neck squamous cell carcinoma (Haedicke et al, 2003; Shintani et al, 2003), suggesting that overexpression of EGFR may be linked to the oncogenesis of various cancers. The gene discussed is EGFR; the disease is familial pancreatic carcinoma.