Published online Dec 10, 2014. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v5.i5.883
Revised: September 13, 2014
Accepted: October 1, 2014
Published online: December 10, 2014
Processing time: 344 Days and 21.5 Hours
Core tip: Besides wild type survivin full length transcript, another six splice variants have been identified. Overexpression of survivin and its isoforms leads to shorter overall and disease-free survival; the transcript variants are positively correlated with apoptosis and could assist prognosis prediction. It has been proved through numerous studies that inhibiting survivin isoforms might become a promising target of drug therapy of carcinomas. Use of small molecule YM155 could offer new therapy for triple negative breast cancer patients while, chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil + epirubicin + cyclophosphamide and Tax-Epi could be guided by survivin splice variants measurements. Survivin transcript variants could become prognostic biomarkers and could provide information about clinical management of patients suffering from breast cancer.