Correlation analysis between MSLN and these transcription factors was then conducted using breast cancer TCGA database (RNA-seq data), revealing that the expression of four transcription factors (ELF1, CEBPB, RELA, and IRF1) was positively correlated with MSLN, while AR expression was negatively correlated with MSLN (Table 1) (Fig. 5A). Here, IRF1 is linked to breast cancer.