# ESR2

Source: https://onco.cc/targets/esr2/  
OnCo record `esr2` (Target). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

ESR2 (Oestrogen receptor beta) is a protein that switches other genes on and off. The public catalogues list it as a drug target and a biomarker, and an approved or late-stage drug is recorded against it. Tied to Breast cancer and Prostate cancer.

## Summary

Nuclear hormone receptor. Binds oestrogens with an affinity similar to that of ESR1/ER-alpha, and activates expression of reporter genes containing oestrogen response elements (ERE) in an oestrogen-dependent manner. Lacks ligand binding ability and has no or only very low ERE binding activity resulting in the loss of ligand-dependent transactivation ability.

CIViC holds 7 clinical evidence items and 0 assertions across 3 variants, naming Tamoxifen and Exemestane. Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.75 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes clinical 0.98, affected pathway 0.61, literature 1.00, genetic association 0.54, animal model 0.51).

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: estrogen receptor 2; Estrogen receptor beta; NR3A2; Erb; ER-beta
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: ESR2
- Class: transcription
- Biology: Nuclear hormone receptor. Binds oestrogens with an affinity similar to that of ESR1/ER-alpha, and activates expression of reporter genes containing oestrogen response elements (ERE) in an oestrogen-dependent manner. Lacks ligand binding ability and has no or only very low ERE binding activity resulting in the loss of ligand-dependent transactivation ability. Location: Nucleus (UniProt). Locus 14q23.2-q23.3 (HGNC).
- Where found: Breast cancer: Open Targets association 0.62 with breast cancer (MONDO_0007254); CIViC evidence names this disease; Prostate cancer: CIViC evidence names this disease

## Notes

- Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: Open Targets known-drug datatype score 0.98; CIViC holds 7 clinical evidence items on its variants. Evidence tier "approved-drug" is the strongest of those signals.
- Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:3468: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:3468
- UniProt Q92731: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q92731/entry
- NCBI Gene 2100: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/2100
- Ensembl ENSG00000140009: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000140009

## Connected records

- collections: [CIViC](https://onco.cc/collections/civic/), [Open Targets Platform](https://onco.cc/collections/open-targets/)
- cancers: [Breast cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-cancer/), [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/esr2.json