Fig. 1.

AIF could influence tumor progression in a triple way: 1) The mechanisms through which dying tumor cells are removed can considerably influence tumor-specific immunity and recent evidences suggest an active role of AIF in the mechanism of phagocytosis. 2) Mitophagy is emerging as a key quality-control mechanism in cancer cells development and AIF was found to influence mitochondrial turnover by binding with specific regulatory proteins. 3) AIF through control of energy metabolism and redox balance was also demonstrated to directly promote tumor progression.