PALB2 and familial pancreatic carcinoma: Mutations in this gene are associated with an increased risk of breast and pancreatic cancers.23, 24, 25 Even within families carrying PALB2 mutations, cases of diffuse gastric cancer are likely to be rare and could be masked by a larger number of sporadic gastric adenocarcinomas, which means that associations with certain cancer subtypes might be missed in epidemiological studies of these families unless the pathology of all reported cancers is known.