Given that several cell cycle regulatory proteins are upregulated in cancers to help maintain the higher proliferation rates of cancer cells, we analyzed patient derived xenograft tissue from two ER+ breast cancer patients and noted substantially higher ADA3 levels in one tumor specimen; interestingly, the higher ADA3 expression levels correlated with higher proportion of cells positive for Ki67, a marker of cell proliferation. Here, MKI67 is linked to cancer.