Objective To evaluate the clinical value of Gli1 expression in breast cancer.Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to analyze the protein expression of Glil in breast cancer tissues,adjacent cancer tissues and metastatic lymph node.Results ①Breast cancer tissues expressed high levels of Gli1 compared to paracancerous tissues.Gli1 overexpression was found in 93.3％ of breast cancer tissues with recurrence and metastasis and 81.2％ in breast cancer tissues without metastasis.Gli1 expression could be detected either in interstitial tissues of cancer or in cancer tissues,or in both.The rate of Gli1 overexpression was 89.3％ in the inter stitial tissues of the primary cancer with recurrence and metastasis and 13.4％ in interstitial tissues of breast cancer tissues without metastasis.The difference had statistical significance(P ＜ 0.001).②High expression of Gli1 in breast cancer tissues was closely related to early recurrence and metastasis of breast cancer.Gli1 expression displayed a significant correlation with relapse-free survival (RFS) (P =0.046).The recurrence rate was 17.8％ in the high expression group in breast cancer tissue,whereas it was only 6.2％ in the low expression group(P =0.046),while the recurrence rate was 31.2％ in the high expression group in interstitial tissues,whereas it was only 11.1％ in the low expression group(P ＜ 0.001).Conclusion The high expression of Gli1 in breast primary cancer tissues,metastasis tissues and interstitial tissues is associated with recurrence and metastasis of breast cancer.