Furthermore, our study reveals a novel role of DDX3 in the maintenance of genome stability through association with tumor suppressor p53 at centrosome during mitosis (Figs 1, 3–7) and modulation of p53 expression (Figs 8–10), which strengthens the tumor suppressive potential of DDX3 and may be helpful for future development of new strategies in cancer therapy. This evidence concerns the gene DDX3X and cancer.