To study if the pancreatic stroma produced these cytokines during tumor progression, we next isolated murine pancreatic stellate cells (mPSC) from the pancreas of the KrasG12D; TP53R172H; Pdx-Cre or KPC mouse model of pancreatic cancer as a pre-cancerous stage (i.e from 1-month-old animals), from the mid-cancer stage (i.e., when the PSCs start getting activated) and from full tumor-bearing animals (when the PSC have completely transformed to CAFs). Here, PODXL is linked to cancer.