To investigate the potential roles of PABPN1 in BC, we first assessed PABPN1 expression in cell lines and 10 paired BC tissues using qRT-PCR and western blot, the results showed that the expression level of PABPN1 was markedly decreased in the seven tested BC cell lines compared with human normal urothelial epithelial cell line (SV-HUC-1) (Additional file 1: Fig S1C and F). This evidence concerns the gene PABPN1 and breast cancer.