SOX9 and pancreatic neoplasm: Moreover, SOX9 correlated negatively with E-cadherin (epithelial marker) and positively with vimentin (mesenchymal marker) in human PDAC samples and pancreatic cells; however, the activation of EMT seems to be independent of SNAIL/SLUG or additional EMT transcription factors such as ZEB1 or PRRX1 in the advanced stages, because these transcription factors are not affected in pancreatic cancer cells with an altered expression of SOX9.