CASP3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Since XIAP directly inhibits apoptosis signaling through suppressing the activity initiator caspase-9 and the effector caspase-3 (22), and c-Myc indirectly inhibits apoptosis signaling pathway through target genes (31–33), these evidences indicate that BETd-260 elicits apoptosis in HCC cells by targeting multiple apoptosis related genes.