Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women (1). Metastasis is the major cause of death in patients diagnosed with cancer (2). Prognosis for patients with breast cancer worsens as the number of axillary lymph nodes with metastasis increases (3). We mined published microarray and multiplexed mRNA quantitation datasets (4, 5) to discover genes associated with metastasis to the lymph nodes, an early event in breast cancer metastasis. We found significant differential expression

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... f the gene encoding fibrillin-1, FBN1, when comparing lymph node metastases to primary breast tumors from women diagnosed with breast cancer. In primary tumors, lower expression of FBN1 correlated with worse overall survival in breast cancer patients in the lowest but not highest survival quartile. FBN1 may be of relevance to processes underlying metastasis to the lymph nodes.