Abstract: Objective：To study the expression of inhibitor apoptosis protein survivin in breast carcimoma and its correlation with,c-erbB-2 expression and cell proliferation index and its clinicopathological significance. Methods ： Immunohistochemistry(SP method) was adopted to detect survivin protein in the tissues of normal mammary (20 cases)，breast carcinoma (96 cases)and Ki-67, c-erbB-2 expressions in the breast carcinoma. Results ：The proliferation index in survivin-positive breast carcinoma (35.32±21.28）% was significantly higher than in survivin-negative breast carcinoma (20.42±11.34)% (P<0.05), positive correlation between survivin expression and proliferative activity of tumor cell measured by Ki-67 index was found.The positive rate of survivin in breast carcinoma was 70.83%(61/96),but no expression of survivin was detected in normal mammary tissues.surivivin expression was positively correlated with c-erbB-2 （P<0.01）.surivivin expression was related to clinic stage and lymph node metastasis and to 5 year survival rate.(P<0.05), but not to age, menopause, tumor size and histological grade. Conclusion ：survivin is not only involved in control of apoptosis, but also accelerates proliferation.survivin gene may play an important role in tumorigenesis and progression of breast carcinoma.survivin over expression indicates worse prognosis and can be used to evaluate the prognosis as a potential index.