RRM2 and breast carcinoma: The results demonstrate that not only expression of TXNIP and TXNRD1, the two factors influencing the thioredoxin pathway, but also downstream effectors show prognostic relevance in breast cancer (Table 4): thioredoxin (TXN), the M2 subunit of ribonucleotide reductase (RRM2), peroxiredoxin 2 (PRDX2), HIF-1α and VEGF were significantly associated with worse prognosis in the combined cohort as well as in at least one of the studied cohorts.