Androgen receptor expression in male breast carcinoma: lack of clinicopathological association

Abstract

Summary Androgen receptor (AR) expression was retrospectively analysed in 47 primary male breast carcinomas (MBCs) using a monoclonal antibody on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. AR immunopositivity was detected in 16 out of 47 (34%) cases. No association was found with patient age, tumour stage, progesterone receptor (PGR) or p53 protein expression. Well-differentiated MBCs tended to be AR positive more often than poorly differentiated ones (P = 0.08). A negative association was found between ARs and cell proliferative activity: MIB-1 scores were higher (25.4%) in AR-negative than in AR-positive cases (21.11%; P = 0.04). A strong positive association (P = 0.0001) was found between ARs and oestrogen receptors (ERs). In univariate analysis, ARs (as well as ERs and PGRs) were not correlated with overall survival; tumour histological grade (P = 0.02), size (P = 0.01), p53 expression (P = 0.0008) and MIB-1 scores (P = 0.0003) had strong prognostic value. In multivariate survival analysis, only p53 expression (P = 0.002) and histological grade (P = 0.02) retained independent prognostic significance. In conclusion, the lack of association between AR and most clinicopathological features and survival, together with the absence of prognostic value for ER/PGR status, suggest that MBCs are biologically different from female breast carcinomas and make it questionable to use antihormonal therapy for patients with MBC.

Androgen receptor expression in male breast cancer predicts inferior outcome and poor response to tamoxifen treatment

“…Unlike other studies on FBC or MBC, we found no correlation between AR and ER/PR status (14,23). There was no association between AR and age, tumour size, histological grade and HER2 status, and these results are in accordance with those in reports on FBC and MBC as well (12,14,23). However, the AR expression rate was found to be significantly higher in cases with lymph node metastases, suggesting that AR-positive MBC tends to be more aggressive than AR-negative MBC.…”

“…The AR expression rate was 40.2% in this study, a value that was similar to that reported by other investigators (12,14), but much lower than that reported in FBC patients (22). Compared with women, men usually have lower oestrogen and higher androgen levels.…”

“…The role of AR as a prognostic factor is controversial. In MBC, Pich et al (12) showed the lack of association between AR and survival, whereas Munoz de Toro et al (13) suggested that decreased androgen action within the breast might contribute to earlier development of MBC. However, similar to the results obtained by Eliza Kwiatkowska et al (14), we found a strong correlation between AR expression and the OS and DFS of MBC patients.…”

Second Primary Breast Cancer in Men with Prostate Adenocarcinoma Treated by Decapeptyl: A Case Report

“…A study on a series of 75 patients showed that 5% of male breast cancers over expressed HER2 (12) . The role of androgen receptors is unclear and has no consequences on the prognosis of male breast cancer (13,14) . In our case, the histological find an invasive breast carcinoma no special type (NST) grade II of SBR.…”

Androgen and vitamin D receptor expression in archival human breast tumors

“…Pacheco et al (30) reported that 75% of the male breast tumors in their study were AR positive. Pich et al (31) found that, of the 47 male breast tumors examined, 34% were AR positive and that well-differentiated tumors were AR positive more often than the poorly differentiated tumors. Munoz de Toro et al (32) reported that 38.5% of male breast tumors in their study were AR positive and that tumors from younger patients showed a significant lack of AR expression.…”