TP53 and cancer: While in normal healthy cells hypoxic stress activates the p53 response that leads to the expression of genes involved in cell death, instead, in tumor cells, HIF-1 plays a central role in adaptation to hypoxia by activating genes implicated in angiogenesis, such as vegf and gapdh, that favor the conditions for cancer progression (Harris, 2002; Gorgoulis et al., 2018).