To bolster our mechanistic in vitro analysis, we analyzed 55 human samples of PDAC (grades 1–3) and found that approximately 69% showed decreased expression of TRAF2 and increased levels of NIK and pT559-NIK (Fig. 7) similar as we had observed it in pancreatic cancer cell lines (Figs. 1 and 2). This evidence concerns the gene MAP3K14 and familial pancreatic carcinoma.