Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of RFXAP in tissue samples, which showed that the RFXAP-positivity rate was significantly lower in pancreatic cancer samples than in the control group [37.0% (17/46) vs. 65.0% (13/20); P < 0.05] (Fig. 3f). Here, RFXAP is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.