Fas signalling has been shown to be activated by NF-κB at the transcriptional level22,23 and PKR-induced apoptosis depends on the activation of Fas by NF-κB.21,24 Noteworthy, plitidepsin has been shown to induce the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in Jurkat leukaemia cells.25,26 Thus, we analysed whether plitidepsin was activating the extrinsic apoptotic pathway also in HeLa cells. This evidence concerns the gene FAS and leukemia.