In this review, we summarized the role, mechanism and clinical significance of SLFN11 in gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, Ewing’s sarcoma, glioblastoma, head and neck cancer, colorectal cancer, renal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma and other cancers (Tables 1, 2). The gene discussed is SLFN11; the disease is esophageal cancer.