The protein expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin in ovarian cancer stem cells, as detected by western blot analysis, was 0.294±0.023 and 0.313±0.017, respectively; significantly lower than that in the HO-8910 cells (0.771±0.031 for E-cadherin and 0.752±0.011 for β-catenin; P<0.05). The gene discussed is CDH1; the disease is ovarian cancer.