Nuclear survivin staining was found not to be different according to the extent of debulking since nuclear survivin positivity was found in seven out of 16 (43.7%) cases achieving optimal cytoreduction (residual tumour <0.5 cm) vs 13 out of 30 (43.3%) patients achieving suboptimal (residual tumour ⩾0.5 cm) debulking (P-value=n.s). Here, BIRC5 is linked to neoplasm.