Interestingly, a study of over 60 cancer cell lines found that RIPK3 expression was downregulated or silenced in two-thirds of the samples, and decreased RIPK3 expression resulted in significant suppression of RIP3-dependent activation of MLKL and downstream programmed necrosis during chemotherapy-induced cell death, indicating that cancer cells can avoid necroptosis and survive 269. Here, MLKL is linked to cancer.