Treatment with icariin and icaritin has resulted in increase in Bax/Bcl2 ratio, release of cytochrome c, cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase and activation of caspases in a wide range of cancer cells (He et al., 2010; Li et al., 2010, 2013a, 2014b; Tong et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2011a; Zhu et al., 2011; Sun et al., 2015b; Wu et al., 2015b); these can be regulated by various signaling pathways, as shown in Table 1. The gene discussed is BCL2; the disease is cancer.