Considering that shed SDC-1 promotes the EMT, high levels of shed SDC-1 were found to upregulate expression of EMT-TFs including ZEB1, Snail1 and Snail2 in breast and pancreatic cancer models to induce expression of the stemness factors SOX2, BMI1, and OCT4, thus facilitating chemoresistance (Pradella et al., 2017). The gene discussed is SDC1; the disease is pancreatic neoplasm.