Expression of survivin protein is highly correlated with more aggressive forms of neuroblastoma (Adida et al, 1998) and oral and skin squamous cell carcinoma (Lo Muzio et al, 2001), and poor survival in patients with neuroblastoma (Adida et al, 1998), colorectal cancer (Kawasaki et al, 1998), nonsmall-cell lung cancer (Monzo et al, 1999), breast cancer (Tanaka et al, 2000) and increasing rates of recurrence in bladder cancer (Sherr and Roberts, 1995). The gene discussed is BIRC5; the disease is colorectal cancer.