The paper describes general characteristics, classification and structure of the tyrosine kinase receptor family ErbB (HER). They are encoded by two well-known proto-oncogenes erbB-1 (HER1, egfr) and erbB-2 (HER2, neu), as well as two genes of probably oncogenic function, namely erbB-3 (HER3) and erbB-4 (HER4). Receptors’ ligands, scheme of dimerisation, signal transduction and function were reviewed. Mechanisms leading to excessive activity of the receptor kinases (probably related to their oncogenic potential) were also denoted.