Significant reductions in Bax expression were found in 34% of primary breast tumours in women with metastatic disease, Bax expression was inversely correlated with overall survival, treatment response, and metastasis in these patients, and Bax expression was found to be predictive of tumour response to chemotherapy independent of other predictive variables (Krajewski et al, 1995; Kapranos et al, 1997; Sjöström et al, 1998). The gene discussed is BAX; the disease is breast neoplasm.