NFE2L2 and cancer: Interestingly, and contradictory to its role in some adult stem cells (Tsai et al., 2013), NRF2 has been shown to increase the expression of components of the PPP in cancer cells to facilitate increased proliferation (Mitsuishi et al., 2012, Singh et al., 2013), suggesting that NRF2 may be playing a similar role in this context.