As a less-invasive and simpler approach, detection of gene mutations in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from the patients with PCNs was investigated by Berger and colleagues, and they demonstrated that the GNAS mutant alleles were detectable specifically in IPMN patients with high positive prevalence (~ 70%), but not KRAS mutants16. This evidence concerns the gene GNAS and pancreatic intraductal papillary-mucinous neoplasm.