In renal cell carcinomas (RCC), while the expression levels of survivin and survivin-ΔEx3 did not show a decrease in late tumour stages in comparison with the early and intermediate tumour stages in 57 clinical RCC samples, survivin-2B expression was significantly decreased in late tumour stages (Mahotka et al, 2002a), indicating a possible unfavourable role of survivin-2B in cancer development. Here, BIRC5 is linked to renal cell carcinoma.