BNIP3 and colorectal cancer: In addition, BNIP3 has a tumor suppressor effect in pancreatic cancer (Okami et al., 2004), colorectal cancer (Murai et al., 2005; Bacon et al., 2007), and gastric cancer (Murai et al., 2005), which is related to hypermethylation of the BNIP3 promoter.