['We investigated in vitro whether IL-1beta and TGF-beta1 affect pancreatic cancer cell growth, adhesion to the extracellular matrix and Matrigel invasion.', 'Adhesion to fibronectin, laminin and type I collagen, and Matrigel invasion after stimulation with saline, IL-1beta and TGF-beta1 were evaluated using three primary and three metastatic pancreatic cancer cell lines.', 'Extracellular matrix adhesion of control cells varied independently of the metastatic characteristics of the studied cell lines, whereas Matrigel invasion of control cells was partly correlated with the in vivo metastatic potential. IL-1beta did not influence extracellular matrix adhesion, whereas it significantly enhanced the invasiveness of three of the six cell lines. TGF-beta1 affected the adhesion of one cell line, and exerted contrasting effects on Matrigel invasion of different cell lines.'] Is pancreatic cancer cells invasiveness mainly affected by interleukin-1beta not by transforming growth factor-beta1?