CD44 and familial pancreatic carcinoma: In previous studies, CD44+CD24+ESA+ and CD44+/CD133+/EpCAM+ triple positive MiaPaCa-2 (MP2) pancreatic cancer stem cells (CSCs) [4,5,6] were shown to have increased cell growth, migration, clonogenicity, self-renewal capacity, and chemotherapy resistance, and, therefore, formed one of the reasons for the selection of MP2 tumors in our studies [7,8,9].