A panel of breast cancer cell lines encompassing the main molecular subtypes (estrogen receptor positive—MCF7, T47D, Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2) positive—SKBR3 and triple negative—MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-468) was examined for basal IRE1 RNase activity by assessing levels of spliced XBP1. Here, XBP1 is linked to breast cancer.