Letter
Copyright ©2012 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. May 10, 2012; 3(5): 80-81
Published online May 10, 2012. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v3.i5.80
Beyond pancreatic carcinoma: The close relationship between survivin levels and prognosis in systemic malignancies
Shailendra Kapoor
Shailendra Kapoor, Formerly University of Illinois at Chicago, Mechanicsville, VA 23111, United States
Author contributions: Kapoor S soley contributed to the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Shailendra Kapoor, MD, Formerly University of Illinois at Chicago, 7487 Sherwood Crossing place #302, Mechanicsville, VA 23111, United States. shailendrakapoor@yahoo.com
Telephone: +1-804-344-3467 Fax: +1-804-344-3469
Received: April 2, 2012
Revised: April 19, 2012
Accepted: April 24, 2012
Published online: May 10, 2012
Abstract

I read with great interest the recent article by Liu and Wang in a recent issue of your esteemed journal. The article is highly thought provoking. Interestingly, the past few years have seen a number of studies that have established a close relationship between survivin expression and tumor prognosis in systemic malignancies besides pancreatic carcinomas. For instance, a poor prognosis is seen in patients with bladder carcinomas which exhibit survivin over expression. A higher recurrence rate is seen following radio-chemotherapy in bladder carcinomas which exhibit increased survivin expression. Similarly, up regulation of survivin expression is seen in non-small cell lung cancers. In fact, Yamashita et al have shown that when used in combination with p53AIP1, survivin is a powerful prognostic indicator in non-small cell lung carcinomas. Similarly in breast carcinomas, increased survivin expression is more commonly seen in estrogen receptor negative carcinomas and is associated with a poor overall prognosis.

Keywords: Survivin; Cancer; Malignancy