Initially, analysis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma TCGA data confirmed that the methylation levels of BMP3, NPTX2, SPARC, SFRP1 and TFPI2 genes were significantly higher in tumor compared with normal tissue, reinforcing their potential as useful biomarkers (Additional file 2: Fig. S1). This evidence concerns the gene BMP3 and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.