However, successive studies have heralded cancer-promoting functions of TFAP2A in lung cancer like transactivating heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) to facilitate tumor growth12, upregulating telomerase to resist apoptosis13, as well as increasing keratin 16 (KRT16) and Inositol-Trisphosphate 3-Kinase A (ITPKA) to promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of lung cancer14,15. Here, KRT16 is linked to neoplasm.