Samaeekia et al. (2017) have reported that MKL1 may contribute to the maintenance of cancer cell stemness by activating interleukin 11 (IL11) transcription. Whitson et al. have recently reported that MKL1 directs a transcriptional program downstream of the non-canonical Hedgehog pathway in basal cell carcinoma to aid drug resistance (Whitson et al., 2018). This evidence concerns the gene IL11 and cancer.