Unlike extracellular HMGB1 that promotes tumor growth, intracellular HMGB1 can regulate autophagy and mitophagy to inhibit the development of pancreatic cancer (Tang et al., 2010, 2011; Kang et al., 2017; Kang and Tang, 2018). This evidence concerns the gene HMGB1 and familial pancreatic carcinoma.