It can be used as a transcription factor to regulate the cell cycle, but high expression of E2F1 can also induce many types of apoptosis.27 Therefore, E2F1 possesses double properties of carcinogenesis and apoptosis induction and its specific effects are related to the specificity of organ tissues and so on.28 In some tumours such as lung cancer and breast cancer, E2F1 promotes canceration.29, 30 Our study found that high expression of E2F1 appears in glioma tissues and it gradually increases with the rise in glioma WHO grade. Here, E2F1 is linked to glioma.