XDH and cancer: Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, mainly produced by xanthine oxidase (XO), NADPH oxidases (NOX), nitric oxide synthase (NOS), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and mitochondria in cancer cells (Huang et al. 2015; Roy et al. 2015; Panieri and Santoro 2016), play a dual role in cancer, depending on the levels generated within the cell or in the microenvironment.