The androgen receptor (AR) has been shown to be of potential prognostic importance in retrospective cohorts. We evaluated immunohistochemical AR expression on a tissue microarray of 673 core biopsies from primary breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant docetaxel/doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide (TAC) chemotherapy in the prospective GeparTrio phase-III trial. AR was detected in 53.2% of tumours. Lowest AR expression was detected in triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) with 21.2%. Highest AR expression was observed in Luminal A-like tumours with 67%. In AR-positive tumours, pathological complete response (pCR) rate was 12.8% compared to 25.4% in AR-negative tumours (P < 0.0001). In multivariate analysis, AR independently predicted pCR (OR 1.86; 95% CI [1.16-2.79] P = 0.0086). Overall patients with an AR-positive tumour had a significant better disease-free (DFS) (AR-positive 78.9% vs. AR-negative 72.5%; log-rank P = 0.0329) and overall survival (OS) (88.8% vs. 82.7%; log-rank P = 0.0234) than those with AR-negative tumours. Stratified analysis revealed that in the TNBC subgroup, but not in the other subgroups defined by ER, PgR and HER2, AR expression predicted a better DFS (AR-positive 85.7% vs. AR-negative 65.5% log-rank P = 0.0544) and OS (95.2% vs. 76.2%; log-rank P = 0.0355). Within the non-pCR subgroup, AR positivity selected a group with a significant better DFS (P = 0.045) and OS (0.021) but not within the pCR group. Patients with an AR-negative tumour have a higher chance of achieving a pCR than those with an AR-positive one. But, patients with AR-positive tumours have a better survival especially if they did not achieve a pCR.

A new monoclonal antibody (moab BW 200) of IgG3 kappa-isotype was generated which recognizes an epitope located on an antigen molecule restricted to human neoplastic and non-neoplastic endothelial cells. The molecular weight of the antigen was determined using immunoprecipitation analysis followed by SDS-PAGE. Despite its similar molecular weight to FVIII-RAG, the antigen detected by moab BW 200 was shown to be different from FVIII-RAG.

Since the advent of endothelial cell specific antibodies, immunocytochemistry has become an increasingly used tool in the diagnosis of malignant endothelial tumors or tumors of an alleged vascular nature. In surgical pathology the most frequently applied markers are anti-Factor VIII-related antigen (anti-FVIII-R:AG) and Ulex europeus I agglutinin (UEA I) because of their ability to work on routinely formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue. However, these markers label angiosarcomas inconstantly, which has prompted the search for more reliable markers, especially monoclonal antibodies specific for endothelial cell specific antigens. BMA 120 (formerly designated BW 200) is an endothelial cell specific monoclonal antibody detecting an epitope of a formalin resistant antigen. This marker labels a considerable number of angiosarcoma cells and it was compared with the staining patterns of anti-FVIIIR:Ag and UEA I in 19 angiosarcomas. Special regard was given to the distribution of antibodies in different parts of angiosarcomas.

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