A total of 26 genes were found to be significantly associated with poor prognosis (Additional file 1: Figure S1), while five of them, including SYT12, GJB5, RHOJ, GJB3 and IFI27, were of particular interest as they have not been previously associated with poor outcomes in pancreatic cancer cases. This evidence concerns the gene SYT12 and familial pancreatic carcinoma.