In line with this hypothesis, measurement of the membrane-associated mucins MUC1, MUC3, MUC4, MUC12, MUC13, MUC15 and MUC16 (ref. 17) showed that MUC1 and MUC13 are expressed at high levels in pancreatic tumour cells (Extended Data Fig. 3a). Here, MUC12 is linked to pancreatic neoplasm.