Studying the Correlation between Androgen Receptor (AR) Expression and Prognostic Factors in Invasive Breast Carcinoma

Background: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women throughout the world. Androgen receptor is a receptor that belongs to the family of nuclear hormone receptors. This receptor functions in the cytosol of target cells as copying factors. These receptors are generally expressed on the neoplastic tissue of breast. However, the role of AR marker in breast cancer has not been defined clearly yet. The present research seeks to study the role of androgens in pre-awareness of breast cancer among women. Materials and Method: This is a cross sectional-analytical research conducted on 110 Mastectomy and Lumpectomy samples of breast cancer referred to the pathology unit of Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Kashan and Alzahra University of Isfahan from 2010 to 2014. Androgen expression in 110 tissue samples was measured using anti-AR antibody in accordance with immunohistochemistry method principles. Furthermore, the correlation between AR expression and receptor of estrogen, progesterone, HER2neu, metastasis to lymph nodes, tumor grade, age and tumor size in patients' paraffin blocks was also studied. Results: The following frequencies were reported for each tumor grade: 30.9% for grade one, 50.9% for grade two, and 18.2% for grade three. Totally, 61.8% of all cases had AR expression. Positive cases of ER were reported among 69.1% of the participants, while positive cases of PR and HER2 were reported among 64.5% and 29.1% of cases respectively. Considering the correlation between AR expression and tumor grade, the following frequencies were reported for positive AR in each grade: 39.7% in grade one, 54.7% in grade two, and 2.9% in grade three. However, the negative cases of AR had the following frequencies: 16.7% in grade one, 40.5% in grade two, and 42.9% in grade three and the difference was statistically significant (P-value < 0.001). However, no correlation was observed between AR expression and other indicators such as patient's age, tumor size, lymph node status, and ER, PR, and HER2neu hormone receptors. Conclusion: Further expression of ER in tumors with lower grades is predictable. As a result, it can be used as an indicator to predict better prognosis among patients with invasive breast cancer.