Androgen Receptor Expression and Its Association with Clinicopathological Parameters of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Patients in the Iranian Population

Introduction: Androgen receptor (AR) is a novel emerging prognostic biomarker. However, there is inadequate information about androgen receptor expression and its association with clinicopathological features of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients, especially in the Iranian population. Method: Herein, seventy-six TNBC patients were evaluated for AR expression by immunohistochemistry. Staining intensity of the slides was assessed by the average degree of nuclear staining and subclassified into negative (0), weak (1), moderate (2), or strong (3). Subsequently, the positive cells percentage were allocated into <25% (1), 25-50% (2), 50-75% (3), and > 75% (4). The two scores were added together to give a final score ranging from 0 to 7. While 4-7 scores were selected as positive, the others were included in AR-negative expression group. Fisher s exact test was used to analyze AR expression correlation with the clinicopathological parameters. Results: Positive immunoreactivity for AR was observed in 8 out of 76 (11%) specimens. Although expression of AR was associated with the age of diagnosis and tumor size, no-correlation (P > 0.05) was observed between its expression and grade, stage, lymph node status, and Ki-67 level. AR-positive patients exhibited older age at the time of diagnosis (P = 0.0339) and larger tumor size (P = 0.022 4 ) in comparison with the AR-negative patients. Conclusion: As low percentage of TNBC patients expressed AR and no significant correlation was observed between its expression and most of clinicopathological parameters, therefore AR may not be an appropriate prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target for Iranian population.

Keywords:

Androgen receptor , Triple-negative breast cancer , Prognostic biomarker , Clinicopathological parameters