Access

Correspondence

Nature Genetics 40, 807–808 (1 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/ng0708-807

ESR1 gene amplification in breast cancer: a common phenomenon?

Hugo M Horlings , Anna Bergamaschi , Silje H Nordgard , Young H Kim , Wonshik Han , Dong-Young Noh , Keyan Salari , Simon A Joosse , Fabien Reyal , Ole Christian Lingjaerde , Vessela N Kristensen , Anne-Lise B|[oslash]|rresen-Dale , Jonathan Pollack & Marc J van de Vijver

To the Editor: Holst et al. investigated the clinical relevance of ESR1 (estrogen receptor alpha) gene amplification in human breast cancer and reported that the ESR1 gene is amplified in 21% of breast carcinomas. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on tissue microarrays with ESR1 BAC RP11-450E24 as a probe, they identified amplification (ESR1 to centromere 6 ratio >2) in 358 out of 1,739 cases (20.