Moreover, experimental data showed that the knockdown of MUC4 expression by shRNA in HPAF cancer cell line is accompanied by a significant decrease of cell proliferation in vitro, tumour growth and incidence of metastasis in vivo (Chaturvedi et al, 2007), suggesting that MUC4 could have an important role in pancreatic carcinogenesis. The gene discussed is MUC4; the disease is cancer.