PANC-1 and COLO357 cells with SOX9 knockdown exhibit a decrease in the expression of a group of genes whose up-regulation is characteristic of primary tumors (cluster A) and genes whose expression is up-regulated in PAAD cell lines isolated from metastases to lymph nodes (cluster C)—in particular, the MEGF6 gene (Figure 9c,d). Here, SOX9 is linked to pancreatic adenocarcinoma.