BIRC5 and cancer: Instead, based on the findings from the basic studies on survivin biology and molecular mechanism of action summarized in Tables 1 and 2, we will review the current cancer therapeutic strategy using survivin as a target, which can be classified into five categories: (i) Inhibitors that disrupt survivin interactions with its partner proteins; (ii) Inhibitors that disrupt survivin homodimerization; (iii) Inhibitors that decrease survivin gene transcription; (iv) Inhibitors that induce survivin mRNA degradation; and (v) Survivin or its peptide for immunotherapy.