CASP9 and gastric cancer: Collectively, these results indicated that activation of caspase-9 and the subsequent induction of apoptosis by evodiamine can be explained because evodiamine repressed the XIAP, survivin, Bcl-2 levels, and anti-apoptotic proteins, and increased the Bax expression, a pro-apoptotic protein, in AGS and MKN45 gastric cancer cells.