AGR2 and neoplasm: Interestingly, in the close vicinity of these lesions we found subpopulations of phenotypically normal-appearing AGR2-expressing cells that could represent PDAC-initiating cells; this is analogous to the population of AGR2-expressing cells identified as initiating cervical and oesophageal cancers.15, 16 This hypothesis is reinforced by the observation of a similar expression pattern in murine models, which are amenable to kinetic analysis, where AGR2 was absent in normal mouse pancreas but was expressed in the pancreas of KC mice before any noticeable neoplasia.