HIF1A and cancer: Berberine promotes apoptosis and anti-cancer effects on a variety of human cancer cells, and can inhibit the growth of many cancer cell lines, such as liver, lung, stomach, colon, skin, esophagus, brain, etc. Berberine prevents the expression of hypoxia inducible factor (HIF-1) in hypoxic gastric cancer (SC-M1) cells; HIF-1 is the key factor mediating tumor angiogenesis.