In the present study, we show that caspase-3 is consistently activated in malignant transformation induced by exogenous expression of oncogenic cocktail (c-Myc, p53DD, Oct-4, and H-Ras) in vitro as well as in the mouse mammary tumor virus-polyomavirus middle T antigen (MMTV-PyMT) mouse model of breast cancer. Here, POU5F1 is linked to breast cancer.