CASP3 and familial pancreatic carcinoma: Thoennissen et al. for the first time showed that cucurbitacin B has profound antiproliferative effects against human pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo and cucurbitacin B may potentate the antiproliferative activity of nucleoside analogue gemcitabine, associated with inhibition of activated JAK2/STAT3 and decrease of expression of Bcl-XL with subsequent upregulation of caspase-3 and caspase-9 [15].