Specifically, in pancreatic cancer tissue sections, the explored peptide signature (MALDI imaging derived discriminative peptide values) for lymph angioinvasion (16 m/z values, pL) corresponds to the eight identified proteins Actin, cytoplasmic (1198 Da, 1790 Da), Collagen alpha-2(I) chain (1547 Da, 1562 Da), Collagen alpha-3(VI) chain (805 Da, 1467 Da), Filamin-B (1628 Da, 1766 Da), Histone H1.3 (1326 Da, 2059 Da), Spectrin beta chain, non-erythrocytic 1 (958 Da, 2059 Da), Valosin-containing protein (1690 Da, 1777 Da) and Vinculin (1269 Da, 1428 Da). The gene discussed is VCP; the disease is familial pancreatic carcinoma.