Similar to our findings in osteosarcoma, increased BNIP3 level has been reported to be correlated with an aggressive tumor phenotype and a poor prognosis in a number of cancers, including breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and uveal melanoma (Giatromanolaki et al., 2004; Chourasia et al., 2015; Jiang et al., 2018). Here, BNIP3 is linked to breast cancer.