These results indicated that GSDME cleavage and activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3 proteins occurred in breast cancer cells with high GSDME expression after paclitaxel treatment, suggesting that GSDME may mediate paclitaxel-induced pyroptosis in breast cancer cells through the caspase-9/caspase-3 pathway. Here, CASP9 is linked to breast cancer.