Y-box binding proteins, belonging to a family of multifunctional proteins conserved from bacteria to human, are involved in transcriptional and translational regulation of various genes, mRNA alternative splicing, DNA replication and repair, as well as cell proliferation. A typical Y-box binding protein contains three structure domains, namely the N-terminal domain, the hydrophilic C-terminal domain and the conserved cold shock domain (CSD) which binds strongly to inverted CCAAT box found in different promoters and determines protein function.Y-box binding proteins may play an important physiological role in cell proliferation.For example, the human Y-box protein 1 (YB-1) may be repressed in the oncogenic phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. In addition, it may also act as a negative regulator of p53. It has been demonstrated that YB-1 represses transcription of the p53 promoter in a sequence-specific manner using specifically reporter assays. This implies that YB-1 may, in some situations, protect cells from p53-mediated apoptosis, indicating that YB-1 may be a good target for the development of a new therapeutics.The function of Y-box binding protein and its effect on carcinogenesis are summarized in the paper. We hope to further explore the functional roles of Y-box binding protein, and provide some helpful lines and suggestions for tumor control.