Everyone has heard of the importance of estrogen and progesterone receptors in breast cancer–but how many of you have heard of the possible role of androgen receptors (AR) in breast cancer?

I have a particular interest in this subject as we published an article several years ago that found AR positivity in 49% of estrogen receptor negative patients (link here to article). In this group of ER negative patients, AR positivity was associated with postmenopausal status, lower tumor grade, smaller tumor size, and HER2 over-expression.  In addition, we found that AR positivity was associated with significantly better disease-free survival which was statistically significant in a univariate analysis.

A recent article in the International Journal of Surgical Oncology found somewhat similar results, equating AR positivity with low malignancy. In a study of triple negative breast cancers in the journal Cancer last year, researchers found that these tumors were associated with a poorer outcome and LOSS of AR!

More research needs to be done regarding AR in breast cancer as it could be a possible target for other hormonal therapy, particularly in the group of ER negative patients for whom traditional hormonal therapy is not an option.

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