Previous studies reported that icaritin activates the JNK signaling pathway to promote apoptosis in hepatoma cells, and inhibits the IL-6/Jak2/Stat3 pathway to suppress HCC initiation and malignant growth by inducing the expression of anti-apoptotic factors of the Bcl-2 family [10, 37]. The gene discussed is IL6; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.