BT-474 and HCC1419 cell lines were obtained from American Type Culture Collection and cultivated for no more than 2 months after each frozen aliquot was thawed. Amphotropic retrovirus carrying Taspase1 specific knockdown hairpin was generated as described26 (link),29 (link). To assay cell proliferation, 1 × 105 cells were seeded onto each well of a 6-well plate and counted 4 days later. Cell cycle and cell death analyses were performed as described26 (link). For western blot, cells and tissues were lysed in standard RIPA buffer. The anti-Taspase1 rabbit polyclonal antibody is as described22 (link),26 (link). Antibodies for cyclin E2 (4132, Cell Signaling), cyclin A (C4710, Sigma), p21 (sc-397, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), p27(sc-528, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), cyclin D1(sc-450, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), p16(554079, BD Pharmingen), and ErbB2(OP-15, Calbiochem) were purchased from indicated companies. Antibodies were detected using the enhanced chemiluminescence method (Western Lightning, PerkinElmer). Immunoblot signals were acquired with the LAS-3000 Imaging system (FujiFilm) and were analyzed with ImageJ software.