In an earlier and now abandoned clinical trial programme, the angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitor imidapril had been studied in 200 patients with one of three cancer types, and improvement in body weight was reported in two (colorectal cancer and non‐small cell lung cancer) but not in the third type studied (pancreatic cancer) nor in the pre‐specified analysis of all three cancer types taken together. This evidence concerns the gene ACE and familial pancreatic carcinoma.