BIRC5 and ovarian cancer: However, accumulating evidence indicates that EMT plays an important role in ovarian tumor metastasis [22–26], Our previous studies showed that TGFβ promoted EMT in ovarian cancer cells [27], and BIRC5 (survivin) expression activates the TGFβ pathway and promotes EMT and ovarian tumor metastasis in orthotopic ovarian cancer mouse models [28].