Prolonged exposure of breast cancer stem cells to rottlerin (38) results in apoptosis, which is correlated with phosphorylated AKT and MTOR suppression, phosphorylated AMPK upregulation and anti-apoptotic BCL2, BCL2L1, XIAP and BIRC2/cIAP1 downregulation. The gene discussed is BIRC2; the disease is breast cancer.