Elif Sila Erim1, Gurdeniz Serin2, Ulus Ali Sanli3, Erhan Gokmen3, Osman Zekioglu2, Burcu Cakar3

1Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.

2Ege University School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, Izmir, Turkey.

3Ege University School of Medicine, Tulay Aktas Oncology Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.

Purpose: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) exhibits a significantly more aggressive course, higher recurrence rate, and shorter survival time compared to other breast cancer types. Molecular heterogeneity characterizes the disease, and in a subset of patients, androgen receptor (AR) expression is present. This study aimed to demonstrate the prevalence of AR positivity and examine its potential prognostic impact on patient survival.

Methods: The study included patients aged >18 years with a history of triple-negative nonmetastatic breast cancer who were followed up and treated at Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital between 2005 and 2017. Staining extent was expressed as a percentage, with ≥1% positivity in stained preparations evaluated as AR positive.

Results: A 36% prevalence rate of AR expression was found in the TNBC group, consistent with previous studies. Although no statistically significant relationship was found between overall and disease-free survival and AR expression in patients with early-stage TNBC, disease-free survival was significantly longer in the AR-positive group. No significant difference in the number of locally advanced patients was found between the AR-positive and AR-negative groups.

Conclusion: Although AR expression was not statistically significantly related to clinicopathological parameters and survival in patients with TNBC in this study, a larger series of studies is needed to validate the results. Furthermore, with the inclusion of AR expression level measurement in routine histopathological examination in the TNBC group, which has an expression rate of 36%, future AR-targeted therapies may show promising effectiveness.

Keywords: breast cancer, androgen receptor, immunohistochemistry, triple-negative.

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