BIRC5, Baculoviral IAP repeat-containing protein 5, Apoptosis inhibitor 4
Survivin is a human gene encoding a structurally unique IAP apoptosis inhibitor. Present during fetal development, survivin is undetectable in terminally differentiated adult tissues. However, survivin becomes prominently expressed in transformed cell lines and in all the most common human cancers of lung, colon, pancreas, prostate and breast, in vivo. Survivin is also found in high-grade non-Hodgkins lymphomas. These data suggest that apoptosis inhibition may be a general feature of neoplasia and identify survivin as a potential new target for apoptosis-based therapy in cancer and lymphoma.