Bcl-2 remained an independent predictor of recurrence/mortality in postmenopausal, but not in premenopausal, women in the ER-negative and PR-negative group in multivariate analyses, including tumor size, nodal status, grade, and HER-2 status; the hazard ratio of Bcl-2 (positive vs. negative) was 17.591 (95 % CI, 4.942 to 75.462; P <0.0001) for recurrence and 9.587 (95 % CI, 3.066 to 32.493; P <0.0001) for mortality in postmenopausal women, but 1.801 (95 % CI, 0.753 to 4.188; P = 0.1810) for recurrence and 1.667 (95 % CI, 0.672 to 3.970; P = 0.2612) for mortality in premenopausal women. Here, PGR is linked to neoplasm.