title: Immunostaining for prostate cancer androgen receptor in paraffin identifies a subset of men with a poor prognosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Knowledge of androgen receptor (AR) content could help predict hormone response and disease course in prostate cancer. However, determination of AR by biochemical assay is difficult. An immunohistochemical assay (ICA) would solve most difficulties and be especially useful if it could be performed on paraffinized tissue.
  
  
  METHODS
  AR was studied in paraffin sections from 90 men for whom endocrine response, survival (except one case), and/or biochemical AR was known. After Ag retrieval in a microwave oven, a polyclonal anti-AR Ab was used with the peroxidase antiperoxidase method. Results were semiquantified using a Histoscore (Hscore) and were correlated with biochemistry, endocrine response, and survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 15 patients were AR-negative. AR-ICA did not correlate with biochemistry, Gleason score, stage, or ethnicity but did correlate with endocrine response and survival. The average Histoscore was significantly lower in patients with progressive disease (p < 0.05). In a Cox's regression analysis of survival (mean follow-up = 30 months) AR-ICA was a significant predictor (p = 0.015). Risk of death was 2.5 times greater for a patient with a negative assay compared with one with a positive result.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data indicate that AR status by ICA may be a useful predictor of survival and endocrine response in prostate cancer. Further studies are needed to confirm these results because the assay could impact significantly on management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, State University of New York, Brooklyn, USA.
authors.forename: L P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Pertschuk
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schaeffer
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Macchia
authors.forename: Y D
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.forename: L V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Braithwaite
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Axiotis
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Prins
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D011379:Prognosis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000401:mortality*; D011944:Receptors, Androgen / Q000032:analysis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D011944:Receptors, Androgen