Since many key oncogene and tumor suppressor products such as p27 [18], c-Jun [19], p53 [8,20,21], COP1 [22] and 14-3-3σ [22] are degraded via the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, it is conceivable that COP9 plays a significant role in cancer. The gene discussed is COPS8; the disease is cancer.