HOXB8 and familial pancreatic carcinoma: To determine if these observations were functionally relevant in PDAC cells, we knocked down (KD) HOXB6 and/or HOXB8 expression using siRNAs (i.e., siHOXB6, siHOXB8, and siHOXB6B8) in the human pancreatic cancer cell lines PANC-1 and AsPC1.