A similar hormonal treatment benefit was seen for patients with high DCN staining in malignant cells, albeit with a less dramatic improvement (HR: 1.17 vs. 1.35 for no hormone treatment group) and can be at least partially explained by molecular subtype bias since high DCN staining in malignant cells had prognostic value for OS only for Luminal B type of tumours (i.e. ER-positive/HER2 -positive). Here, ESR1 is linked to neoplasm.