AKR1B1 and breast cancer: AKR1B1 and RASGRF2 were highly methylated in metastatic breast cancer [28], and our study showed that promoters of AKR1B1 and RASGRF2 were also hypermethylated in breast cancer with ALNM, which suggested that AKR1B1 and RASGRF2 may play the same role in ALNM breast cancer as in metastatic breast cancer and may also be candidate methylation biomarkers for breast cancer with ALNM.