Studies showed that phosphorylation/activation of p38, MAPK and JNK contributes to cancer cell apoptosis (Liu et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2014) and that the p38 regulates apoptosis process, cycle growth progression and cell differentiation (Zarubin and Han, 2005; Krens et al., 2006). The gene discussed is MAPK8; the disease is cancer.