Abstract: P73 protein is one of the main members of p53 protein family, and its coding gene TP73 is highly homologous to TP53 gene. On one hand, similar to p53, p73 protein is involved in all aspects of cell life. On the other hand, unlike the p53, not only p73 protein plays the role of tumor suppressor in normal cell activities and tumor development, but also the function of p73 protein is no less complex and important than that of p53 protein. Tumorigenesis involves a variety of cellular biological processes, such as apoptosis, autophagy, cell migration and cell metabolism. These normal cellular biological processes are tightly regulated by multiple cellular signaling pathways to maintain homeostasis. Once a carcinogenic abnormality occurs, it will eventually lead to tumorigenesis. Therefore, this paper mainly focuses on the important research results of p73 and tumorigenesis and its unique function different from p53 protein in recent years.