Survivin (baculoviral inhibitor of apoptosis IAP repeat-containing protein-5) is a member of the IAP gene family, which has been implicated in both inhibition 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.
References:
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2.Velculescu VE, Madden SL, Zhang L, Lash AE, Yu J, Rago C, et al. Analysis of human transcriptomes. Nat Genet 1999; 23:387-8.
3.Adida C, Berrebi D, Peuchmaur M, Reyes-Mugica M, Altieri DC. Anti-apoptosis gene, survivin, and prognosis of neuroblastoma. Lancet 1998; 351:882-3.
4.Kawasaki H, Altieri DC, Lu CD, Toyoda M, Tenjo T, Tanigawa N. Inhibition of apoptosis by survivin predicts shorter survival rates in colorectal cancer. Cancer Res 1998; 58:5071-4.
5.Monzo M, Rosell R, Felip E, Astudillo J, Sanchez JJ, Maestre J, et al. A novel anti-apoptosis gene: Re-expression of survivin messenger RNA as a prognosis marker in non-small-cell lung cancers. J Clin Oncol 1999; 17:2100 -4.
6.Adida C, Haioun C, Gaulard P, Lepage E, Morel P, Briere J, et al. Prognostic significance of survivin expression in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. Blood 2000; 96:1921-5.
7.Nakayama K, Kamihira S. Survivin an important determinant for prognosis in adult T-cell leukemia: a novel biomarker in practical hemato-oncology. Leuk Lymphoma 2002; 43:2249 -55.
8.Paul N. Span, Fred C.G.J. Sweep et al. Survivin Is an Independent Prognostic Marker for Risk Stratification of Breast Cancer Patients. Clinical Chemistry 50:11; 1986 -1993 (2004)
9.Zaffaroni N, Daidone MG. Survivin expression and resistance to anticancer treatments: perspectives for new therapeutic interventions. Drug Resist Updat 2002; 5:65-72.