CRP and familial pancreatic carcinoma: Recently, the systemic inflammatory response, as evidenced by elevated circulating concentrations of C-reactive protein, has been shown to be a stage independent prognostic factor in patients undergoing potentially curative resection for colorectal cancer (McMillan et al, 2003), pancreatic cancer (Jamieson et al, 2005) and urinary bladder cancer (Hilmy et al, 2005).