We have already shown that bcl-2 protein is down-regulated upon treatment of breast cancer cells with N-BPs (Senaratne et al, 2000) and now report that forced expression of bcl-2 in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells efficiently inhibits ZOL-induced DNA fragmentation, which is a consequence of caspase activation in breast cancer cells. This evidence concerns the gene BCL2 and breast cancer.