Survivin (baculoviral inhibitor of apoptosis IAP repeat-containing protein-5) is a member of the IAP gene family, which has been implicated in both inhibitions of apoptosis and mitosis regulation1. Survivin is one of the most uniformly up-regulated genes in tumor tissues compared with healthy tissues2. High survivin expression in the primary tumor is almost invariably associated with poor patient prognosis in many cancer types.

Survivin relates to poor disease outcome in a variety of tumors, i.e., neuroblastoma3, colorectal cancer4, non-small-cell lung cancers5, B-cell lymphoma6, T-cell leukemia7, hepatocellular carcinoma, esophageal carcinoma, rectal cancer, glioma, bladder cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, and astrocytic tumors. Survivin mRNA, as measured by quantitative RT-PCR in the primary tumor, has strong and independent prognostic value in human breast cancer. Survivin mRNA concentrations in the tumor can be used to classify breast cancer patients into different risk groups. 8 Cells that are unresponsive to apoptotic triggers will also be more resistant to cytotoxic treatments, as are cells that overexpress survivin9.