CASP9 and neoplasm: It has been demonstrated in various tumour cell lines that sorafenib induced mitochondrial damage manifested by cytochrome c release into the cytosol, caspase 9 and 3 activation, and in consequence, apoptosis mediated through an intrinsic pathway (Huang et al. 2010; Rahmani et al. 2007; Yu et al. 2006).