BAX and cancer: Consistent with the importance of Bax CTS insertion into membranes, and the function of Bax as an anti-oncogene, cancer-associated mutations of the Bax CTS (A183T or A183P, or truncating mutations at S184 and W188) [81] or phosphorylation of a key residue within the Bax CTS (S184) [82] diminished Bax binding to the MOM and the subsequent conformational changes required for Bax oligomerization.