Recently, it was possible to evaluate the combination of the three metabolites CA 19.9, TIMP1 and LRG1 in the detection of early stage PC through applying a metabolomic approach in plasma samples obtained from patients harboring non cancerous IPMN and IPMN patients with an associated invasive ductal adenocarcinoma [126]. The gene discussed is TIMP1; the disease is pancreatic intraductal papillary-mucinous neoplasm.