Interestingly, BCL-XL has also been shown to have apoptosis-independent function in metastasis in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour and breast cancer cell lines via nuclear promotion of epithelial–mesenchymal transition, migration, invasion and stemness49 and in chemoresistance via RAS interaction and influence on EMT and regulation of cancer-initiating cell (CICs)50. Here, BCL2L1 is linked to cancer.