Although great progress has been made in the field of oncolytic virotherapy, including cancer ‐targeting gene virotherapy strategy proposed by our group that was based on oncolytic adenovirus using the tumour‐specific promoters instead of E1A promoter to enhance the targeting ability and safety of adenoviruses,5, 22, 23, 24 there are some issues to restrain its application in cancer therapy. This evidence concerns the gene DHTKD1 and neoplasm.