TP53 and cancer: As a well-characterized tumor suppressor, p53 has been demonstrated to modulate numerous processes related to tumorigenesis, including DNA damage repair, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, senescence, etc. Deficiency of p53 can lead to malignant transformation to initiate tumors; meanwhile, its mutation or deletion may also occur at late stages of cancers, which can augment cancer progress and drug resistance (Zhou et al., 2018).