VIM and breast cancer: In other words, during the EMT, the levels of the mesenchymal cell-specific intermediate filament protein vimentin increased, whereas the levels of the intercellular adhesion protein E-cadherin decreased, thereby facilitating the conversion of epithelial cells to mesenchymal cells (Yang et al., 2004); this results in the loss of intercellular adhesion and epithelial morphology, such as is observed in progressive breast cancer.