Survivin: potential role in diagnosis, prognosis and targeted therapy of gastric cancer.

Survivin is a protein that is highly expressed in a vast number of malignancies, but is minimally expressed in normal tissues. It plays a role as an inhibitor of cell death in cancer cells, thus facilitating the growth of these cells. In the case of gastric cancer, survivin is over-expressed in tumor cells and plays a role in the carcinogenesis process. Several studies on gastric cancer have indicated that there is a relationship between survivin expression and the ultimate behavior of the carcinoma. Since the expression pattern of survivin is selective to cancer cells, it has been described as an "ideal target" for cancer therapy. Currently, several pre-clinical and clinical trials are on-going to investigate the effects of interfering with survivin function in cancer cells as a biologic therapy. Survivin is a potentially significant protein in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of gastric tumors.