Consistently, using a cohort of breast cancer patient specimens, we showed that, compared with luminal breast cancers, where TET2 and ERα were predominantly expressed, TNBC exhibited deficient expression of both TET2 and ERα (Fig. 4j, k, n = 83, TE2: p = 0.0097; ERαː p = 5e−8). Here, ESR1 is linked to breast cancer.