BIRC5 and cancer: Previous results had demonstrated that SNS-032 reduces the viability of UKF-NB-3 cells (and other cancer cells) via interference with CDK7 and CDK9 and subsequent RNA polymerase II inhibition resulting in depletion of anti-apoptotic proteins with a high turnover rate including Mcl-1, XIAP, and survivin [7, 8, 19].