In human pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia, MUC4 expression increases progressively with advanced dysplasia (Swartz et al, 2002), and inhibition of MUC4 by antisense RNA suppresses cell growth and metastases in pancreatic cancer cells (Singh et al, 2004; Moniaux et al, 2007). Here, MUC4 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.