The expression of Bax, Survivin and Bcl-2 was similar, with slightly greater presence of the antiapoptotic proteins; however, the results of this study does not allow us to conclude that the overexpression of antiapoptotic proteins play an important role as growth mechanism of POT, as it has been suggested for other odontogenic neoplasms (31). The gene discussed is BIRC5; the disease is odontogenic neoplasm.