RakSutkaBreast cancer: the biology, the detection, and how the treatment changed.
An adult researcher at a laboratory fume hood with glassware and racks, seen from the side
Where most of it was establishedAlmost every finding on this site was worked out at a bench, by people who can be named.

Section 02

Receptors and genes

Three findings turned one diagnosis into several — the oestrogen receptor, HER2, and a susceptibility gene on chromosome 17. Each is here as what it is, who established it, and what changed once it could be tested for.

4 entries · What the cells carry, and what it changed.

Entries in this section

  • A laboratory bench with a scintillation counter and racks of small vials, mid-century equipment
    02.1 The oestrogen receptor

    Elwood Jensen identified the receptor that made hormonal treatment possible and made the disease something that could be sorted into kinds.

  • A gel electrophoresis tray on a lightbox showing bands, gloved hands at the edge
    02.2 HER2

    A marker of worse outcomes became a target, which is a rare direction of travel in medicine.

  • A printed pedigree chart of family linkage data spread across a desk beside a notebook
    02.3 BRCA1 on chromosome 17

    Mary-Claire King located the gene by linkage in 1990, when a great many people in the field doubted a single gene would be found at all.

  • A computer screen showing a heat map of coloured rows and columns in a laboratory office
    02.4 Molecular subtypes

    Expression profiling divided one diagnosis into several with different behaviour, which changed what the word meant.

Every entry on this site is one thing that was established, and who established it. The complete set is in the register.