On the one hand, the expression of cofilin is upregulated in some highly invasive cancer cells, such as C6 rat glioblastoma cells, A549 human lung cancer cells and human pancreatic cancer cells, but downregulation is also observed in other cancer cells with high metastatic potential, such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and ovarian surface epithelium (OSE) cells (Kanellos and Frame, 2016; Wang et al., 2007). The gene discussed is CFL1; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.