BCL2 and cancer: Icaritin has been reported to inhibit growth and induce apoptosis in cancer cells through several mechanisms that include: 1) upregulation of pro-apoptotic proteins (i.e. Bax and Bak) and downregulation of anti-apoptotic proteins (i.e. Bcl-2) [19,31]; and 2) inhibition of PI3K/AKT, Jak/Stat, and MAPK/ERK signaling pathways [20,21].