Abstract: As a nonhistone chromatin-associated protein, high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) protein is an intracellular protein that stabilizes nucleosomes and plays a key role in regulating DNA recombination, du-plication, repair and transcription of many genes. Extracellular HMGB 1 acts as a kind of advanced stage medi-ator of inflammation. Recent evidence has revealed that overexpression of HMGB1 in many kinds of tumor, particularly in conjunction with its receptor, has been associated with tumor neoangiogenesis as well as infiltra-tion, metastasis, proliferation and apoptosis of tumor cells. However, the expression and function of HMGB 1 in different tumor cells may be different. Because the biological characteristics of tumor cells are closely relat -ed to the overexpression of HMGB 1, HMGB 1 can be a target for genetic and pharmacological therapy. Re-cently, it was reported that inhibiting the expression, secretion, release, synthesis and signaling pathway of HMGB1 resulted in the arrest of inflammation. These findings warrant application and verification in cancer re -search and may be helpful for developing new treatment strategies for cancer.