However, in a recent meta-analysis, both overweight women and postmenopausal women with higher leptin concentrations were at higher risk for breast cancer17, and post-diagnosis case–control studies have reported higher circulating resistin to be a risk factor for postmenopausal breast cancer, which correlated with higher stage, lymph node metastasis, and negative hormone receptor status14,15,18. Here, RETN is linked to breast carcinoma.