HSPA9 and cancer: Besides blocking the p53 function, overexpression of mortalin in cancers has been shown to contribute to malignancy and metastasis by its interactions with heterogenous ribonucleoprotein k (hnRNP-K), protein-kinases (MAP2K or MEK), and Raf/MEK/ERK (Wu et al., 2013; Ryu et al., 2014).