As recently reported46, ZEB1 depletion in pancreatic epithelial cells has no effect on tumour initiation or growth, but reduces tumour grading and metastasis in pancreatic cancer driven by Pdx1-Cre-mediated activation of mutant Kras and p53 (see refs. 47,48 for this KPC model). Here, TP53 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.