SERPINB5 and neoplasm: Maspin is a serine protease inhibitor with tumour-suppressive activity due to its ability to inhibit metastatic tissue invasion, angiogenesis and to sensitise tumour cells to apoptosis (Zou et al, 1994; Sheng et al, 1996; Zhang et al, 2000; Cher et al, 2003; Liu et al, 2004).