Studies of relevant p38 biological activities and our current findings highlight a promising role of p38 in transducing the apoptotic signals of indomethacin in glioma cells involving the PP2A/Akt axis to turn on Mcl-1/FLIP-guided mitochondria- and death receptor-mediated apoptotic cascades and phosphorylation-triggered Bax mitochondrial translocation. The gene discussed is MCL1; the disease is glioma.