Purpose: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease group with a higher recurrence risk and poorer prognosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency and prognostic value of androgen receptor (AR) expression in tissues of TNBC patients.
Methods: A total of 84 TNBC patients treated between 2000 - 2015 in Hacettepe University Cancer Institute were included and their medical records were analyzed retrospectively. The available paraffin blocks were assessed immunohistochemically to determine AR expression. Tumors with ≥1% nuclear staining were considered AR-positive, while the ones with <1% staining were considered AR-negative. We analyzed the association between AR expression, and clinical-pathologic characteristics and prognosis in TNBC.
Results: Of the 84 TNBC patients, 25 (29.8%) were AR-positive. The frequency of grade 3 tumors was lower among AR-positive TNBC tumors compared to AR-negative tumors (40 vs 86.4%, p<0.001). In the AR-positive group, invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) was less prevalent compared to AR-negative group (56 vs 86.4%, p<0.002). However, there were not statistically significant differences between AR positive and negative groups in terms of overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) (p=0.449, p=0.733, respectively). We found that grade 3 tumors were less frequent in AR-positive TNBC in our study. Nonetheless, we did not detect statistically significant difference in terms of overall survival and disease free survival between AR positive and negative TNBC.
Conclusion: Routine evaluation of AR could contribute to further studies that may enlighten the role of AR targeting therapies in TNBC.