An interesting observation is that cancer-associated mutations in the DBD of p53 impair the pro-apoptotic activity of cytoplasmic p53 (Zhang et al., 2020), as they disrupt the interactions of BCL-XL and MCL1 with p53’s DBD (Mihara et al., 2003; Leu et al., 2004; Pietsch et al., 2008). This evidence concerns the gene MCL1 and cancer.