Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths. Pancreatic cancer is seldom detected at an early stage, spreads rapidly, and has poor prognosis with less than 5% surviving over a five-year time span. The majority of all patients with pancreatic cancer have non-operable disease and current chemotherapies and radiotherapies are largely ineffective. As a result novel therapies that can effectively target pancreatic cancer and help prevent metastasis are needed. Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have developed a mouse pancreatic tumor cell line overexpressing human MUC1. MUC1 is a protein that is expressed in over 90% of pancreatic tumors and is aberrantly glycosylated. Thus MUC1 appears to be a potential target for the development of pancreatic cancer therapies. Researchers have shown that subcutaneous immunization of mice with MUC1-overexpressing pancreatic tumor cells, provided protection against subsequent intra-pancreatic tumor challenge with MUC1-overexpressing pancreatic tumor cells. Furthermore, through the use of MUC1-overexpressing pancreatic tumor cells researchers have discovered a number of specific immune components required for the elimination of pancreatic tumors expressing MUC1. This technology promises to be valuable in the study of MUC1-directed therapies for pancreatic cancer.