The treatment of breast cancer cells with siRNA against HSP27, to explore whether the HSP27 association with NLK regulates NLK-mediated cell death, reduced cell survival, and increased the rate of cell apoptosis, suggesting that an inactive form of NLK is captured by HSP27 in the nucleus, while depletion of HSP27 releases NLK to the cytosol, which consequently induces further cell death in breast cancer cells. The gene discussed is NLK; the disease is breast cancer.