ACVR2A and familial pancreatic carcinoma: 1996). SMAD1 pathway is involved in diverse biological processes such as cell growth, apoptosis, morphogenesis, development and immune modulation. The activation of ACVR2/SMAD1/SMAD4 played fundamental role in autocrine bone morphogenetic protein-9 mediated ovarian cancer cell proliferation (Herrera et al. 2009). The SMAD1 induction by BMP signalling, along with up-regulation of MMP-2 was critical for pancreatic cancer invasiveness (Gordon et al. 2009).