Kim et al. (2011) showed that CAP activated p53 and induced p53-dependent apoptosis. Ma et al. (2014) reported that cancer cells carrying a mutated TP53 gene were more vulnerable to CAP treatment than cells with wild-type p53, implicating p53-independent cell death caused by CAP. These observations suggested that plasma-induced cell death could be p53-dependent or p53-independent, which is consistent with our knowledge (Liebermann, Hoffman & Steinman, 1995). The gene discussed is TP53; the disease is cancer.