However, in vitro models need to be designed and interpreted with the impact of RBM3 expression on clinical outcome in mind, and the previously demonstrated pro-tumourigenic properties for RBM3 in vitro, e.g. that siRNA mediated silencing of the gene renders cancer cells less proliferative [10,13,14], should not be interpreted as being contradictory to its association with a prolonged survival when expressed in human tumours. Here, RBM3 is linked to cancer.