Until recently there has been little information about the expression or function of MSX2 in pancreatic tumors, although both PDAC and IPMN harbor frequent K-ras gene mutations at codon 12 (Satoh et al., 1993b, 1996) and MSX2 was suggested to be a downstream target of the ras signal. Here, MSX2 is linked to pancreatic intraductal papillary-mucinous neoplasm.