RELA and hepatocellular carcinoma: Numerous groups are currently researching NF-κB and have found that NF-κB plays a key role in cancer anti-apoptotic mechanisms (3,16,17); Wu et al (18) found that adenosine arrested hepatocellular carcinoma cells in the G0–G1 phase of the cell cycle, enhanced the activity of caspase-3 and upregulated p53, but at the same time upregulated NF-κB p65 expression and downregulated Bcl-2 expression.