We consistently found that 1) hypoxia-induced autophagy in PDAC stellate cells; 2) subsequent lumican degradation occurred exclusively in stromal cells, leaving the cancer cells, indicating that stellate cells are more sensitive to hypoxia with respect to lumican levels; and 3) stromal autophagy decreased stromal lumican secretion, which was linked to tumor growth12,13. Here, LUM is linked to neoplasm.