Thus, high expression of XIAP has been reported in many malignant tumour types, such as carcinomas of the breast, ovaries, lung, pancreas, cervix and prostate (Ferreira et al, 2001a, 2001b; Liu et al, 2001; Gerhard et al, 2002; Hofmann et al, 2002; Mc Eleny et al, 2002; Parton et al, 2002; Sui et al, 2002) as well as leukaemias (Tamm et al, 2000). This evidence concerns the gene XIAP and neoplasm.