Further study by Torres et al. [17] revealed that thymoquinone down-regulates glycoprotein mucin 4 (MUC4) expression through the proteasomal pathway and induces apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells by activating c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. Here, MUC4 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.