About the Authors

Ya-Qing Li

Contributed equally to this work with: Ya-Qing Li, Fang-Fang Liu

Affiliations Department of Breast Cancer Pathology and Research Laboratory, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin Medical University, Ministry of Education, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, China

Fang-Fang Liu

Contributed equally to this work with: Ya-Qing Li, Fang-Fang Liu

Affiliations Department of Breast Cancer Pathology and Research Laboratory, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin Medical University, Ministry of Education, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, China

Xin-Min Zhang

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Xiao-Jing Guo

Affiliations Department of Breast Cancer Pathology and Research Laboratory, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin Medical University, Ministry of Education, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, China

Mei-Jing Ren

Affiliations Department of Breast Cancer Pathology and Research Laboratory, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin Medical University, Ministry of Education, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, China

Li Fu

fuli@tijmu.edu.cn

Affiliations Department of Breast Cancer Pathology and Research Laboratory, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin Medical University, Ministry of Education, Tianjin, China, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, China, 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center of Tianjin for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YQL FFL LF. Performed the experiments: YQL MJR. Analyzed the data: YQL FFL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YQL FFL XJG LF. Wrote the manuscript: YQL FFL XMZ.