Immunochemical studies of estrogen receptors.

The preparation of specific antibodies, and especially monoclonal antibodies, to human estrophilin has furnished a means of detecting and studying receptor localization, structure and function, independent of its ability to bind labeled steroid. These reagents have been especially useful in providing improved methods for the determination of estrogen receptors in human breast cancers, as a guide to clinical prognosis and therapy, and in facilitating the cloning of estrophilin cDNA leading to an elucidation of the aminoacid sequence of the receptor molecule.