In patients with axillary lymph node metastasis and in those whose tumors were ER- or PR-positive, rates of high WTAP expression were 31.6% (54/171), 31.6% (68/215) and 29.6% (53/179), respectively, all of which were significantly lower than the corresponding rates among patients without lymph node metastasis (43.2%, 76/176), samples of ER-negative tissue (47.0%, 62/132) and PR-negative tissue (45.8%, 77/168) (P = 0.026, P = 0.004 and P = 0.002, respectively). This evidence concerns the gene PGR and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes.