In contrast, our results suggested that SPARC expression was associated with mesenchymal markers and CTCs undergoing EMT, because SPARC expression was positively correlated with vimentin and ZEB1 and negatively correlated with KRT8 and EPCAM. Consistent with our results, evidence from melanoma and breast carcinoma studies pointed to SPARC as an inducer of EMT [26, 27]. Here, VIM is linked to breast carcinoma.