Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of E-cadherin（E-cad） in invasive ductal carcinoma and its relationship with clinicopathological features， lymph node metastasis and prognosis. Methods Immunohistochemical SP method was used to detect the expression of E-cad in 30 cases of breast fibroadenoma and 450 cases of breast invasive ductal carcinoma. The relationship between its expression and clinical pathological features was analyzed. The survival curve was drawn by Kaplan-Meier method. Results The positive expression rate of E-cad in non-metastatic breast cancer tissues was 49.04％ （77／157）， which was significantly higher than that of E-cad in metastatic breast cancer（P＜0.05）. The expression of E-cad was correlated with age， lymph node metastasis， tumor size， ER expression， molecular type and histological grade （P＜0.05）， but not with tumor stage， the expression of HER-2 and Ki-67. The 5-year survival rate of patients with E-cad positive expression in breast cancer lymph node metastasis group and triple-negative breast cancer group was better than those with E-cad negative expression（P＜0.05）. Conclusion The expression of E-cad is closely related to the lymph node metastasis of breast cancer， and it may also be a prognostic indicator of breast cancer with lymph node metastasis or triple-negative breast cancer.