Prognostic Role of Androgen Receptor in Triple Negative Breast Cancer: A Multi-Institutional Study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The androgen receptor (AR) has emerged as a potential therapeutic target for AR-positive triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, conflicting reports regarding AR's prognostic role in TNBC are putting its usefulness in question. Some studies conclude that AR positivity indicates a good prognosis in TNBC, whereas others suggest the opposite, and some show that AR status has no significant bearing on the patients' prognosis.

METHODS:

We evaluated the prognostic value of AR in resected primary tumors from TNBC patients from six international cohorts {US (n = 420), UK (n = 239), Norway (n = 104), Ireland (n = 222), Nigeria (n = 180), and India (n = 242); total n = 1407}. All TNBC samples were stained with the same anti-AR antibody using the same immunohistochemistry protocol, and samples with ≥1% of AR-positive nuclei were deemed AR-positive TNBCs.

RESULTS:

AR status shows population-specific patterns of association with patients' overall survival after controlling for age, grade, population, and chemotherapy. We found AR-positive status to be a marker of good prognosis in US and Nigerian cohorts, a marker of poor prognosis in Norway, Ireland and Indian cohorts, and neutral in UK cohort.

CONCLUSION:

AR status, on its own, is not a reliable prognostic marker. More research to investigate molecular subtype composition among the different cohorts is warranted.

• Authors: Shristi Bhattarai, Sergey Klimov, Karuna Mittal, Uma Krishnamurti, Xiaoxian Bill Li, Gabriela Oprea-Ilies, Ceyda Sonmez Wetherilt, Ansa Riaz, Mohammed A Aleskandarany, Andrew R Green, Ian O Ellis, Guilherme Cantuaria, Meenakshi Gupta, Upender Manne, Johnson Agboola, Brett Baskovich, Emiel A M Janssen, Grace Callagy, Elaine M Walsh, Anurag Mehta, Atika Dogra, Tanuja Shet, Pooja Gajaria, Tiffany Traina, Haruna A Nggada, Abidemi Omonisi, Saad A Ahmed, Emad A Rakha, Padmashree Rida, Ritu Aneja
• Journal: Cancers (Cancers (Basel)) Vol. 11 Issue 7 (Jul 17 2019) ISSN: 2072-6694 [Print] Switzerland
• PMID: 31319547 (Publication Type: Journal Article)