Downregulation of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthase 2 (HMGCS2) reduces ketone production, enhances the c-Myc/cyclinD1 and EMT signaling pathways, and inhibits caspase-dependent apoptosis pathways, which promotes tumor proliferation, migration and xenograft tumorigenesis in various cancers (Tang et al., 2017). The gene discussed is HMGCS2; the disease is cancer.