Relationship of survivin to clinical drug resistance in Burkitt's lymphoma of the head and neck region.

This study was designed to determine the potential role of survivin in the pathogenesis of Burkitt´s lymphoma (BL) and analyzing the relationship of its expression with response to therapy. The expression of survivin was investigated in seven archival tumor tissues of BL using the streptavidin-biotin complex technique. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that survivin expression was positive in 6 of 7 BL cases (85.7%). BL group with high survivin expression had poor response to chemotherapy than the group with low survivin expression (P=0.005). The results suggest that apoptosis inhibition by survivin is a significant prognostic parameter of poor response to chemotherapy in Burkitt's lymphoma.