The efficacy of GNE-495 to induce cell death in pancreatic cancer cell lines was also apparent due to its effect on increasing caspase-3 activity (Fig. 6c), Bax, cleaved -caspase 3 and -PARP expressions, and decreasing Bcl2 expression in a concentration-dependent manners (Fig. 6d, e and Supplementary Fig. 5d–e). Here, CASP3 is linked to familial pancreatic carcinoma.