Previous reports have indicated that the anti-cancer effect of gossypol was due to its ability to interfere with the functions of Mcl-1, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL (highest to lowest affinity) proteins (Mohammad et al, 2005; Etxebarria et al, 2008; Meng et al, 2008). The gene discussed is BCL2L1; the disease is cancer.