Clinicopathologic Profile Of Androgen Receptor Expression In Primary Breast Carcinoma And Its Relation With Estrogen, Progesterone, Her‑2 Receptor Status And Molecular Subtypes

Abstract

Background: The prevalence rate of AR expression in breast cancer and its clinical relevance is an area of active research. Objective: To study the expression of AR in primary breast cancer and correlated this expression pattern with clinical, pathologic parameters and hormone receptor(ER,PR,HER-2 Status)expression. Methods: Sixty three breast cancer cases were studied using AR immunohistochemistry, and its expression was correlated with different clinicopathologic parameters (Age,histopathological subtype,grade) along with ER, PR, Her-2/neu expression and AR with nuclear staining(>10% )was considered positive. Results: AR was expressed in 40(63.5%) breast carcinoma cases out of 63 examined. The mean age of patients was 6th decade (range: 25-76 years). There was a statistically significant correlation between AR expression with age (p < 0.05). Positive AR expression was seen in 4 (10%) of grade I, 35(87%) of grade II, 1(3) % of grade III carcinoma and Negative AR expression was seen in 1 (4%) of grade I, 20(87) % of grade II, 2(9 %) of grade III carcinoma. Positive AR expression was seen in 38(64%) of infiltrating ductal carcinoma, 2(100%) of mucinous carcinoma.AR negativity was seen in 21(36% )of infiltrating ductal carcinoma,1(100 %) of medullary carcinoma and 1(100 )% of Invasive papillary carcinoma. Positive AR expression was seen in 25% of luminal A, 24% of luminal B, 24 % of Her2 like and 27% of TNBC. Conclusion: Positive AR immunostaining was associated with advanced age,certain histopathological subtypes,low grade tumors,ER,PR status and molecular subtypes. However, this finding will need to be confirmed by large cohort studies.