More recently, high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) release following chemotherapy-induced damage to leukemia cells caused a protective autophagy response (Liu et al., 2011a), strengthening the possibility that damage-associated molecular pattern molecule (DAMP) release during chemotherapy can increase autophagy to grant a defensive reaction (Liu et al., 2011b). Here, HMGB1 is linked to leukemia.