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Hormone receptors in defining breast cancer prognosis—time for a rethink?

Nature Clinical Practice Oncology volume 4, pages 204–205 (2007)Cite this article

Estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) have been used as predictive markers in breast cancer for many years. ER is an accepted 'gold standard', which can accurately determine response to hormone therapy.1 Both ER and PR are ligand-activated transcription factors. PR is a transcriptional target of ER and its expression indicates a functional ER pathway. Positive or negative gene transcription is further defined by the extent of interaction of ligand-bound receptor with co-regulatory proteins—co-activators, which enhance gene expression, and co-repressors, which have a counterbalancing effect. Early measurements of ER and PR used biochemical methods such as the ligand-binding assay, but these methods have gradually given way to immunohistochemistry, which is now in widespread use.

Two structurally and functionally distinct ERs exist, ERα and ERβ, but currently only ERα is used to guide clinicians in the definition of treatment strategies. ERβ exists as 5 isoforms, ERβ1–5, each with unique exon 8 sequences. These isoforms are potentially very important—although not all are capable of ligand binding they can, through heterodimerization, antagonize the function of ERα, thus preventing ligand-receptor binding.2

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. V Speirs is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Pathology and Tumor Biology at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, and AM Shaaban is a Consultant Histopathologist in the Department of Histopathology and Molecular Pathology, University of Leeds, Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds, UK.,

    Valerie Speirs & Abeer M Shaaban

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  1. Valerie Speirs
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  2. Abeer M Shaaban
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Correspondence to Valerie Speirs.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Speirs, V., Shaaban, A. Hormone receptors in defining breast cancer prognosis—time for a rethink?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 4, 204–205 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc0771

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