{"entity":{"id":"pdgfrb","kind":"target","name":"PDGFRB","aka":[],"tldr":"A growth receptor on connective-tissue and blood-vessel cells. Imatinib works in rare cancers driven by PDGFRB fusions, such as dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans and some chronic myeloid neoplasms with eosinophilia.","summary":"Platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta signals in fibroblasts, pericytes and smooth muscle. The COL1A1::PDGFB fusion of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans drives the receptor through its own ligand, and PDGFRB rearrangements define a group of myeloid and lymphoid neoplasms with eosinophilia; both respond to imatinib, which inhibits PDGFRB alongside KIT, ABL1 and PDGFRA. Sunitinib, pazopanib and other multi-kinase inhibitors also block it, contributing to their anti-angiogenic effect through pericytes. In most solid tumours PDGFRB is a stromal rather than a tumour-cell target.","asOf":"2026-09-04","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDGFRB","links":[{"label":"UniProt P09619: PDGFRB","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P09619/entry"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["sarcoma","cmml"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["imatinib","sunitinib"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"symbol":"PDGFRB","role":[],"sources":[],"specificity":"broadly-expressed","distribution":"few-types","specificityNote":"Broadly expressed or essential: HPA finds the RNA at low tissue specificity; the 2 medicines aimed at it (Imatinib, Sunitinib) act on the wild-type protein, so normal tissue is exposed and the therapeutic window comes from the tumour's faster division or its dependence on the protein. HPA PDGFRB: RNA low tissue specificity; high antibody staining in 2 normal tissues; highest cancer staining glioma (3 of 11 high). Distribution: 2 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST), Leukaemia); approvals of single-target medicines aimed at it also list Skin cancer (all types), not counted; Open Targets associates it with 14 specific cancer types at or above 0.5 (myofibromatosis, infantile, 1, infantile myofibromatosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, chronic myeloid leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia and more). (Rule 7 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas PDGFRB tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000113721-PDGFRB/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000113721 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000113721/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:8804","ensembl":"ENSG00000113721","uniprot":"P09619","entrez":"5159","firstDescribed":1988,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Gronwald R.G.K. et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A, 1988, \"Cloning and expression of a cDNA coding for the human platelet-derived growth factor receptor: evidence for more than one receptor class\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2835772/","biology":"Receptor tyrosine kinase of mesenchymal cells and pericytes; oncogenic through fusions in dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans and myeloid neoplasms with eosinophilia.","whereFound":["Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (COL1A1::PDGFB)","Myeloid or lymphoid neoplasms with PDGFRB rearrangement","Tumour stroma and pericytes"],"targetClass":"kinase","prevalence":[{"cancerId":"sarcoma","pct":"more than 90","measure":"COL1A1-PDGFB fusion in dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, the PDGFRB-driven sarcoma imatinib treats","source":"https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0997-95"}]},"route":"/targets/pdgfrb/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"cmml","kind":"cancer","name":"Chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia and MDS/MPN overlap neoplasms","route":"/cancers/cmml/"},{"id":"dermatofibrosarcoma-protuberans","kind":"cancer","name":"Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans","route":"/cancers/dermatofibrosarcoma-protuberans/"},{"id":"all-ph-like","kind":"cancer","name":"Philadelphia chromosome-like acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (Ph-like or BCR::ABL1-like ALL)","route":"/cancers/all-ph-like/"},{"id":"sarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)","route":"/cancers/sarcoma/"}],"drug":[{"id":"imatinib","kind":"drug","name":"Imatinib","route":"/drugs/imatinib/"},{"id":"sunitinib","kind":"drug","name":"Sunitinib","route":"/drugs/sunitinib/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-burstein-tnbc-genomic-subtypes-ccr-2015","kind":"paper","name":"Comprehensive genomic analysis identifies novel subtypes and targets of triple-negative breast cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-burstein-tnbc-genomic-subtypes-ccr-2015/"}]}}