Finally, we obtained blood serum samples from 83 preoperative breast cancer patients and found that the level of adiponectin was lower in the overweight group (BMI: 25-29.9) than in the normal group (BMI: 18.5–24.9), but the difference was not significant (p = 0.13) (Additional file 5: : Fig. S5C). This evidence concerns the gene ADIPOQ and breast cancer.