On the other hand, previous immunohistochemical studies revealed the nuclear expression of survivin proteins also to be associated with tumour cell proliferation and a poor prognosis in cancer patients, as was also shown in the present study, while the cytoplasmic expression of survivin proteins was not (Martinez et al, 2004; Huang et al, 2005; Ling et al, 2005; Shinohara et al, 2005; Taubert et al, 2005). Here, BIRC5 is linked to cancer.