SMAD4 and Patent ductus arteriosus: Although it iswell-established that the pathogenesis of PDAs follows stepwise stages that displayincreasing cellular atypia and accumulate clonal mutations or aberrant expression ofoncogenes or tumor suppressor genes such as K-Ras,p16, p53, and DPC4/SMAD4[2], drugs thattarget these molecular abnormalities have not yet translated into improved clinicalresponses [3].The aggressive nature of PDA is featured by its high incidence of metastases at thetime of initial diagnosis and high incidence of early metastases following surgicalresection.