Many routine clinical tests utilise the levels of circulating proteins and glycoproteins for diagnostic or prognostic purposes, including the analyses of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in liver function4, and the pancreatic cancer biomarkers, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and CA 19-95. Here, CEACAM5 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.