A high basal rate of autophagy has been described in several human PDAC cell lines, and autophagy was shown to be upregulated in the later stages of the progression of pancreatic intraductal neoplasia (premalignant lesions; PanIN) to PDAC, but not in normal pancreatic ducts.20 Inhibition of autophagy in these cases (using either pharmacological inhibition with chloroquine or siRNA-mediated knockdown of ATG5) reduced cell proliferation in vitro and tumour growth in vivo, in nude mice. This evidence concerns the gene ATG5 and neoplasm.