More precise biomarkers of endocrine therapy response are needed in breast cancer. Skliris and colleagues observed that estrogen receptor-α (ERα) phosphorylation on the serine-282 residue is predictive of a good clinical outcome and that phosphorylation on threonine-311 is predictive of a poor clinical outcome in a tamoxifen treated cohort. This suggests an improvement over the current ERα status system could be developed based on which ERα residues are phosphorylated in a given tumour. Skliris et al. (2010) Endocrine-Related Cancer 17, 589-597.

DOI: 10.1677/ERC-10-0030