Propofol, a short-acting intravenous sedative agent, is often used in clinical practice for intraoperative general anaesthesia and postoperative sedation. 1,2 A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that propofol has a novel function in tumour cell proliferation, invasion, migration, and apoptosis in lung cancer, 3 gastrointestinal tract, [4][5][6] breast cancer, 7 ovarian 5 and cervical cancer. 8 Furthermore, studies have confirmed that propofol induced a metabolic switch to glycolysis and cell death, 9 and attenuated the adhesion between tumour