One study comparing GDF‐15 levels of pancreatic cancer patients with several other tumour entities similarly revealed lower concentrations of GDF‐15 for breast cancer patients,25 albeit in vitro data suggest a participation of GDF‐15 in malignant progression of breast cancer cell lines.26 Importantly, we found the highest crude hazard ratios for GDF‐15 in breast cancer patients in our analysis. The gene discussed is GDF15; the disease is familial pancreatic carcinoma.