BIRC5 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Specifically, we found that gene transfection of STAT1C into ESCC cell lines effectively induced apoptosis, and this finding was associated with the substantial down-regulation of several pro-survival proteins such as Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and survivin, as well as modulation of two G1 cell-cycle regulatory proteins, p21waf1 and cyclin D1.