BIRC5 and malignant tumor of neck: Our previous studies in colorectal and head-&-neck cancer cells indicated that FL118 selectively inhibits the expression of survivin, Mcl-1, XIAP and/or cIAP2, which were demonstrated to play important roles in FL118-induced cell growth inhibition and apoptosis induction tested through genetic silencing or overexpression of these genes [16,31].