Furthermore, we show that compressed MIA PaCa-2 cells lacking GDF15 (either after shGDF15 or siGDF15 treatment) exhibited reduced migratory ability while treatment with rhGDF15 reversed this effect, suggesting that GDF15 plays a crucial role in solid stress-induced pancreatic cancer cell migration (Fig. 3 and Supplementary Fig. 4). Here, GDF15 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.