Sato et al. reported that SPARC mRNA was expressed in non-neoplastic pancreatic ductal epithelial cells (79%) but not in pancreatic cancer cell lines (0/17) or the majority of primary pancreatic cancer tissues (68%) and that methylation of the SPARC gene promoter was responsible for gene silencing [12]. The gene discussed is SPARC; the disease is pancreatic neoplasm.