{"entity":{"id":"erg","kind":"target","name":"ERG","aka":["ETS transcription factor ERG","Transcriptional regulator ERG","erg-3","p55"],"tldr":"ERG (Transcriptional regulator ERG) is a gene that drives cell growth when it is altered. The public catalogues list it as an oncogene driver, a biomarker and a fusion partner, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Sarcomas, Prostate cancer, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 4 more.","summary":"Transcriptional regulator. May participate in transcriptional regulation through the recruitment of SETDB1 histone methyltransferase and subsequent modification of local chromatin structure.\n\nCIViC holds 1 clinical evidence item and 0 assertions across 1 variant. Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.72 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes genetic literature 0.61, literature 1.00, genetic association 0.03, somatic mutation 0.83, animal model 0.57). IntOGen calls it a driver in 1 cohort (1 activating, 0 loss-of-function), covering Angiosarcoma.","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:3446","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:3446"},{"label":"UniProt P11308","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P11308/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 2078","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/2078"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000157554","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000157554"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["civic","open-targets","intogen"],"cancers":["sarcoma","prostate","non-hodgkin-lymphoma","leukaemia","neuroendocrine","all-leukemia","angiosarcoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":["paper-tomlins-tmprss2-ets-fusion-science-2005","paper-tcga-molecular-taxonomy-primary-prostate-cell-2015","paper-pettersson-tmprss2-erg-outcome-meta-analysis-cebp-2012"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"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: IntOGen calls it an activating (Act) driver in 1 cohort; CIViC holds 1 clinical evidence items on its variants; UniProt disease notes describe a translocation or gene fusion involving the gene. Evidence tier \"clinical-evidence\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"ERG","role":["oncogene-driver","biomarker","fusion-partner"],"evidenceTier":"clinical-evidence","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:3446","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:3446","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt P11308","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P11308/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene ERG","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/71","note":"1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases: B-lymphoblastic Leukaemia/lymphoma (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000157554","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000157554/associations","note":"association with cancer (MONDO_0004992) 0.72; per-cancer scores at or above 0.5: prostate cancer 0.58, sarcoma 0.67, neuroendocrine neoplasm 0.52, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia 0.54, non-Hodgkin lymphoma 0.56, leukaemia 0.56 (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"IntOGen ERG","url":"https://www.intogen.org/search?gene=ERG","note":"driver in 1 cohort (Act 1, LoF 0); Compendium_Cancer_Genes.tsv release 20240920, CC0 1.0"}],"specificity":"tumour-specific","distribution":"many-types","specificityNote":"Tumour-specific alteration: the catalogues call it an oncogene driver (IntOGen cohort analysis finds it activated more often than chance) and a fusion partner (UniProt records a translocation); what a medicine would aim at or exploit is the altered form or its loss, absent from normal cells; no corpus medicine is aimed at it yet. HPA ERG: RNA tissue enhanced (blood vessel 38 nTPM); high antibody staining in 2 normal tissues. Distribution: 5 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST), Prostate cancer, Lymphoma, Leukaemia, Neuroendocrine tumours); Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (Rule 6 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"UniProt P11308","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P11308/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene ERG","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/71","note":"1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases: B-lymphoblastic Leukaemia/lymphoma (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"IntOGen ERG","url":"https://www.intogen.org/search?gene=ERG","note":"driver in 1 cohort (Act 1, LoF 0); Compendium_Cancer_Genes.tsv release 20240920, CC0 1.0"},{"label":"Human Protein Atlas ERG tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000157554-ERG/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000157554 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000157554/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:3446","ensembl":"ENSG00000157554","uniprot":"P11308","entrez":"2078","firstDescribed":1987,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Rao V.N. et al, Science, 1987, \"erg, a human ets-related gene on chromosome 21: alternative splicing, polyadenylation, and translation\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3299708/","biology":"Transcriptional regulator. May participate in transcriptional regulation through the recruitment of SETDB1 histone methyltransferase and subsequent modification of local chromatin structure. Location: Nucleus; Cytoplasm (UniProt). Locus 21q22.2 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Sarcomas: Open Targets association 0.67 with sarcoma (MONDO_0005089)","Prostate cancer: Open Targets association 0.58 with prostate cancer (MONDO_0008315)","Non-Hodgkin lymphoma: Open Targets association 0.56 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (MONDO_0018908)","Leukaemia: Open Targets association 0.56 with leukaemia (MONDO_0005059)","Neuroendocrine tumours: Open Targets association 0.52 with neuroendocrine neoplasm (MONDO_0019496)","Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: Open Targets association 0.54 with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (MONDO_0004967); CIViC evidence names this disease","Prostate cancer: gene fusion putting erg under an androgen-responsive promoter 25-46% depending on disease state"],"targetClass":"oncogene","prevalence":[{"cancerId":"prostate","pct":"25-46","measure":"Gene fusion putting ERG under an androgen-responsive promoter","source":"https://www.cbioportal.org/study/summary?id=prad_tcga_pub","note":"cBioPortal structural variants, samples with an ERG rearrangement: 152 of 333, 45.6%, in prad_tcga_pub, which reproduces the 46% the TCGA paper reports; 203 of 494, 41.1%, in prad_tcga_pan_can_atlas_2018; 305 of 1,013, 30.1%, in prad_p1000; 104 of 424, 24.5%, in prad_mcspc_mskcc_2020; 127 of 504, 25.2%, in prad_mskcc_2017; 544 of 2,260, 24.1%, in prostate_msk_2024; 528 of 2,069, 25.5%, in prad_msk_stopsack_2021; 134 of 444, 30.2%, in prad_su2c_2019; 62 of 150, 41.3%, in prad_su2c_2015. TMPRSS2 is the partner in almost all of them: 194 of the 203 TCGA PanCancer events, 305 of 305 in prad_p1000 and 128 of 134 in prad_su2c_2019, with SLC45A3 and NDRG1 supplying the rest."}]},"route":"/targets/erg/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"civic","kind":"collection","name":"CIViC","route":"/collections/civic/"},{"id":"intogen","kind":"collection","name":"IntOGen","route":"/collections/intogen/"},{"id":"open-targets","kind":"collection","name":"Open Targets Platform","route":"/collections/open-targets/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"all-leukemia","kind":"cancer","name":"Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia","route":"/cancers/all-leukemia/"},{"id":"angiosarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Angiosarcoma","route":"/cancers/angiosarcoma/"},{"id":"leukaemia","kind":"cancer","name":"Leukaemia (all types)","route":"/cancers/leukaemia/"},{"id":"neuroendocrine","kind":"cancer","name":"Neuroendocrine tumours","route":"/cancers/neuroendocrine/"},{"id":"non-hodgkin-lymphoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types)","route":"/cancers/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/"},{"id":"prostate","kind":"cancer","name":"Prostate cancer","route":"/cancers/prostate/"},{"id":"sarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)","route":"/cancers/sarcoma/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-barbieri-spop-foxa1-med12-prostate-nat-genet-2012","kind":"paper","name":"Exome sequencing identifies recurrent SPOP, FOXA1 and MED12 mutations in prostate cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-barbieri-spop-foxa1-med12-prostate-nat-genet-2012/"},{"id":"paper-taylor-integrative-genomic-profiling-cancer-cell-2010","kind":"paper","name":"Integrative genomic profiling of human prostate cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-taylor-integrative-genomic-profiling-cancer-cell-2010/"},{"id":"paper-chung-comprehensive-genomic-profiling-prostate-jco-po-2019","kind":"paper","name":"Prospective comprehensive genomic profiling of 3,476 primary and metastatic prostate tumours","route":"/key-papers/paper-chung-comprehensive-genomic-profiling-prostate-jco-po-2019/"},{"id":"paper-baca-punctuated-evolution-chromoplexy-cell-2013","kind":"paper","name":"Punctuated evolution of prostate cancer genomes","route":"/key-papers/paper-baca-punctuated-evolution-chromoplexy-cell-2013/"},{"id":"paper-tomlins-tmprss2-ets-fusion-science-2005","kind":"paper","name":"Recurrent fusion of TMPRSS2 and ETS transcription factor genes in prostate cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-tomlins-tmprss2-ets-fusion-science-2005/"},{"id":"paper-robinson-integrative-clinical-genomics-advanced-prostate-cell-2015","kind":"paper","name":"SU2C-PCF: integrative clinical genomics of advanced prostate cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-robinson-integrative-clinical-genomics-advanced-prostate-cell-2015/"},{"id":"paper-tcga-molecular-taxonomy-primary-prostate-cell-2015","kind":"paper","name":"TCGA: the molecular taxonomy of primary prostate cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-tcga-molecular-taxonomy-primary-prostate-cell-2015/"},{"id":"paper-armenia-long-tail-oncogenic-drivers-prostate-nat-genet-2018","kind":"paper","name":"The long tail of oncogenic drivers in prostate cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-armenia-long-tail-oncogenic-drivers-prostate-nat-genet-2018/"},{"id":"paper-grasso-mutational-landscape-lethal-crpc-nature-2012","kind":"paper","name":"The mutational landscape of lethal castration-resistant prostate cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-grasso-mutational-landscape-lethal-crpc-nature-2012/"},{"id":"paper-pettersson-tmprss2-erg-outcome-meta-analysis-cebp-2012","kind":"paper","name":"The TMPRSS2-ERG rearrangement, ERG expression and prostate cancer outcomes: a cohort study and meta-analysis","route":"/key-papers/paper-pettersson-tmprss2-erg-outcome-meta-analysis-cebp-2012/"},{"id":"paper-ren-chinese-prostate-whole-genome-eur-urol-2018","kind":"paper","name":"Whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing of prostate cancer identifies new genetic alterations driving disease progression","route":"/key-papers/paper-ren-chinese-prostate-whole-genome-eur-urol-2018/"}],"term":[{"id":"chromoplexy","kind":"term","name":"Chromoplexy","route":"/terms/chromoplexy/"}],"biomarker":[{"id":"tmprss2-erg-fusion","kind":"biomarker","name":"TMPRSS2-ERG fusion (and the other ETS rearrangements)","route":"/biomarkers/tmprss2-erg-fusion/"}]}}