Our results revealed that low-dose gemcitabine treatment (1–5 μM) for 24 h, which has a minimal killing effect on pancreatic cancer cells (Fig. 1a), induced the expression of stemness-associated molecules Bmi1 and Sox2 as well as the CSC marker CD24 (Fig. 1b-e). The gene discussed is BMI1; the disease is familial pancreatic carcinoma.