PGR as a Radioligand Therapy Target
PGR, progesterone receptor, is a cell-surface protein (membrane receptor). In Human Protein Atlas immunohistochemistry, PGR staining is highest in endometrial cancer (82% of samples positive), breast cancer (50% of samples positive) and cervical cancer (17% of samples positive). Evidence on whether PGR internalizes is mixed. Clinical status: Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality).
Is PGR a good radioligand therapy target?
Scored against the six criteria that decide whether a protein can become a radioligand therapy:
- ✅ Cell-surface accessibility: Localized to the cell surface, so a radioligand can reach it from circulation.
- ✅ Tumor expression: High IHC staining in endometrial cancer, 82% of samples positive.
- ⚠️ Internalization: Mixed evidence.
- ✅ Clinical precedent: Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality)
- ❔ Shedding: Not yet assessed.
- ❔ Normal-tissue dosimetry: Check kidney, liver, bone marrow and salivary expression in the Human Protein Atlas tissue atlas.
PGR expression in cancer
Protein expression of PGR across 20 cancer types from Human Protein Atlas immunohistochemistry. The score is a weighted staining intensity from 0 to 1; "% positive" is the share of patient samples with detectable staining.
| Cancer type | IHC score | Level | % positive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endometrial Cancer | 0.55 | High | 82% |
| Breast Cancer | 0.33 | Medium | 50% |
| Cervical Cancer | 0.14 | Low | 17% |
| Ovarian Cancer | 0.09 | Low | 9% |
| Head and Neck Cancer | 0.08 | Low | 25% |
| Neuroendocrine Tumors | 0.08 | Low | 25% |
| Lung Cancer | 0.06 | Low | 8% |
| Prostate Cancer | 0.03 | Low | 9% |
| Testicular Cancer | 0.03 | Low | 8% |
Not detected by IHC in: skin cancer, colorectal cancer, lymphoma, melanoma, kidney cancer, thyroid cancer, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer, glioma, liver cancer.
Is PGR internalized?
Uncertain. Insufficient literature found.
Sources: PMID 37432459 · PMID 37255456 · PMID 37134112 · PMID 35682800 · PMID 19830694. AI-extracted from abstracts, so verify before citing.
PGR clinical trials
Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality). Nuclens hasn't indexed trials for PGR yet. Search ClinicalTrials.gov for PGR trials.
PGR normal tissue expression
Normal-tissue expression in dose-limiting organs (kidney, liver, bone marrow, salivary glands) drives radioligand dosimetry risk. Nuclens is re-validating its normal-tissue values, so they are not shown here yet. See PGR in the Human Protein Atlas tissue atlas, and read how normal-tissue expression predicts radioligand dosimetry risk.
PGR gene essentiality (DepMap)
CRISPR knockout effect across 1237 cancer cell lines: 0.02 (not essential). Radioligands kill by radiation, not by blocking the target, so essentiality matters less than for inhibitors. A non-essential target can still be an excellent radioligand target.
Related endometrial cancer radioligand targets
HER3 (ERBB3) · c-MET (MET) · EGFR · EPCAM · B7-H3 (CD276) · SSTR2 · ITGAV · STEAP2
See all radioligand therapy targets in endometrial cancer.
See how PGR ranks against 15,000 targets for your indication.
Run a free analysisData sources
Subcellular localization: UniProt via Open Targets (CC BY 4.0 / CC0). Tumor immunohistochemistry: Human Protein Atlas (CC BY-SA 4.0). Clinical trials: ClinicalTrials.gov (public domain). Gene essentiality: DepMap (CC BY 4.0). Internalization and shedding: AI-extracted from PubMed abstracts, so verify against the cited papers before relying on them. Nuclens is a first-pass triage layer, not a substitute for wet-lab validation or clinical dosimetry. Derived expression data on this page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.