Survivin is the most recent member of the IAP family, which shows a higher expression in almost all tumor cells, but not detected in most normal cells. Our attention is drawn by survivin due to its selective expression, which was taken as one molecule sign of tumor cells. Accordingly, survivin is examined in most leukemia cell line and leukemia specimen, whose expression also showed the association with leukemia. As in other tumor cells, survivin also plays an important role in the leukemogenesis. Meanwhile the detection of survivin can provide an useful prognosis information. This article is a brief overview of the development of survivin and its relationship with leukemia.