Treatment of GC patients with rofecoxib (50 mg/day) resulted in a significant decrease in plasma and tumour contents of both progastrin and gastrin levels, and this was accompanied by the increased expression of proapoptptic proteins such as Bax and caspase-3 with a concomitant reduction in Bcl-2 and survivin expression. The gene discussed is GAST; the disease is gastric cancer.