Iron imbalances between mitochondria and cytosol can have broad pathological consequences in cancer through altered immunometabolism (Li et al., 2018), and the genetic deficiencies of mitochondria-related genes (FH, PINK1) are likely to trigger dysregulation of the mitochondria-cytosol iron balance, which is associated with the Warburg effect and HIF signature in cancer (Li et al., 2018, Tong et al., 2011, Tyrakis et al., 2017). The gene discussed is PINK1; the disease is cancer.