The BIRC5 (survivin) gene and its spliced isoforms have been shown to be associated with prostate cancer cell proliferation and aggressive phenotypes26; and tumour-associated splice variants of MACF1, ITGB3, TLE3, SHC1, ETS1 and BCAS1 have been reported in lung, prostate, breast cancer and glioblastoma27–32. Here, ITGB3 is linked to breast cancer.