SOX9 and familial pancreatic carcinoma: Thus, SOX9 is required for the formation of acinar-ductal metaplasias (ADM) and their progression to pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanIN), through its activity downstream of oncogenic K-RAS or EGFR signaling [27,28,29]; however, its role in the advanced stages of pancreatic cancer is not well described.