Conflicting observations, however, have been reported between XIAP expression and tumour stage or patient's survival in carcinomas of the cervix as well as non-small-cell lung carcinomas of early or advanced stages (Ferreira et al, 2001a, 2001b; Liu et al, 2001; Hofmann et al, 2002). The gene discussed is XIAP; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.