Recently, Hamidi et al.(17) found that NUPR1 is involved in a defense mechanism that promotes pancreatic cancer cell survival when exposed to metabolic stress, and Matsunaga et al.(29) reported that deferoxamine-induced NUPR1 promoted mesenchymal stem cell survival and cytoprotective autophagy. The gene discussed is NUPR1; the disease is familial pancreatic carcinoma.