Pharmacologic inhibition of IKK by BAY 11-7082 in hypoxic cells resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in Twist expression but no notable changes in Zeb1, Zeb2 or Snail expression, a finding that indicts the heightened state of NF-κB as an etiologic biochemical force underlying Twist overexpression in pancreatic cancer cells under hypoxic conditions (Fig. 4B). Here, ZEB1 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.