NGF and familial pancreatic carcinoma: Furthermore, knowing that tumor-derived NGF may activate SC autophagy, which in turn promoted perineural invasion in pancreatic cancer, Zhang et al. reported that targeting NGF and inhibiting autophagy blocked SC autophagic flux, stimulated SC apoptosis, and decreased the invasion of malignant cells to nerve fibers, showing marked therapeutic effects in the perineural invasion in a pancreatic cancer model [710].