ArticleNPJ breast cancer2023
Immune landscape of breast tumors with low and intermediate estrogen receptor expression.
Article in NPJ breast cancer, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Association between endocrine therapy and survival outcomes in estrogen receptor-low breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The oncologist · 2026Pooled it
- PROMENADE: pembrolizumab for early ER-low/HER2-negative breast cancer, real-world French cohort.ESMO open · 2025Trial
- Neoadjuvant nivolumab and chemotherapy in early estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer: a randomized phase 3 trial.Nature medicine · 2025Trial
- Selective estrogen receptor degraders and their effect on the breast cancer immune microenvironment.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- Breast cancer immunogenicity as a spectrum: evolving concepts and therapeutic implications.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- Patient characteristics, treatment patterns, and survival across estrogen receptor expression subgroups in HER2-negative breast cancer: a population-based cohort study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Characteristics and outcomes of patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancers with low expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors in the multicenter ESME cohort.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2026Article
- Risk stratification and relapse pattern in triple-negative breast cancer with pathological complete response after neoadjuvant treatment: the European GAMBIT real-world study.Nature communications · 2026Observational
- Special Issue "Breast Cancer: From Pathophysiology to Novel Therapies".International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Predictors of pathologic complete response in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy: a multi-institution study.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2026Article
- Pan-cancer analysis of single-cell profiles with polygenic signals reveals genetic influences on tumor immunity across cancers.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Endocrine therapy-specific lineage and partial epithelial-mesenchymal reprogramming defines divergent resistant cell-states in ER+ breast cancer.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Tailoring targeted therapies for younger women with ER-positive early-stage breast cancer.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2026Review
- Heterogeneity and immune microenvironment of early invasive estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer reveal an immune-rich subset.NPJ breast cancer · 2026Article
- Estrogen Receptor-Low Positive (ER-Low) Breast Cancer: A Unique Clinical and Pathological Entity.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Review
- Homologous recombination deficiency in primary ER-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Defining prognostic subgroups and treatment outcomes in estrogen receptor low-positive de novo metastatic breast cancer.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2026Observational
- Impact of estrogen receptor expression levels on chemo-responsiveness and prognosis of breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.NPJ breast cancer · 2026Article
- Estrogen receptor signaling drives immune evasion and immunotherapy resistance in HR+ breast cancer.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Distribution and molecular drivers of the 21-gene recurrence score in early breast cancer with low, intermediate, and high estrogen receptor expression.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is currently approved for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), whereas responses to ICB are also observed in a small subgroup of Estrogen Receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. The cut-off for ER-positivity (≥1%) is based on likelihood of endocrine treatment response, but ER-positive breast cancer represents a very heterogeneous group. This raises the question whether selection based on ER-negativity should be revisited to select patients for ICB treatment in the context of clinical trials. Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) and other immune parameters are higher in TNBC compared to ER-positive breast cancer, but it is unknown whether lower ER levels are associated with more inflamed tumor microenvironments (TME). We collected a consecutive series of primary tumors from 173 HER2-negative breast cancer patients, enriched for tumors with ER expression between 1 and 99% and found levels of stromal TILs, CD8 + T cells, and PD-L1 positivity in breast tumors with ER 1-9% and ER 10-50% to be comparable to tumors with ER 0%. Expression of immune-related gene signatures in tumors with ER 1-9% and ER 10-50% was comparable to ER 0%, and higher than in tumors with ER 51-99% and ER 100%. Our results suggest that the immune landscape of ER low tumors (1-9%) and ER intermediate tumors (10-50%) mimic that of primary TNBC.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.