In pancreatic cancer, hCAP-18/LL-37 was strongly expressed by macrophages in response to tumor-derived Activin A, and increased CSC self-renewal, invasion, tumorigenicity, the expression of CD133 and of pluripotency-associated genes: KLF4, SOX2, OCT3/4 and NANOG. Here, NANOG is linked to pancreatic neoplasm.