CASP3 and breast cancer: In another study, Devarajan et al observed that caspases-3 mRNA levels in commercially available total RNA samples from breast, ovarian, and cervical tumuors were either undetectable (breast and cervical) or substantially decreased (ovarian) and that the sensitivity of caspase-3-deficient breast cancer (MCF-7) cells to undergo apoptosis in response to anticancer drug or other stimuli of apoptosis could be enhanced by restoring caspase-3 expression, suggesting that the loss of caspases-3 expression and function could contribute to breast cancer cell survival [59].