BIRC5 and breast cancer: Paradoxically, clinical studies have revealed that chemotherapeutic agents, such as docetaxel (DXL), not only induce apoptosis of BC cells, but also activate the NF-κB signaling pathway, which suppresses activation of the caspase cascade by upregulating the expression levels of anti-apoptotic proteins, including survivin and Bcl-2 (Chu et al., 1997; Baldwin, 2001).