title: Impact of androgen receptor cytosine-adenine-guanine polymorphisms on clinical outcome in BRCA mutation-associated epithelial ovarian cancers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Androgen signaling may function in the pathobiology of epithelial ovarian cancers associated with mutations in the BRCA1/2 genes. Androgen receptor (AR) activity correlates inversely with length of a polymorphic cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) repeat in exon 1. We hypothesized that AR CAG allele length is a modifier of clinical outcome in BRCA1/2 mutation positive women with ovarian cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We identified BRCA1/2 ovarian cancer patients with banked serum from which we PCR amplified the CAG repeat region. We abstracted clinical and survival data, and examined CAG repeat length <19 as a short AR allelotype. We calculated a sample size of 60 patients to determine a 24-month difference in survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 62 patients, 43 (69%) had BRCA1 mutations and 19 (31%) had BRCA2 mutations. Fifteen (24%) were found to have a short AR allelotype. Patients with a short AR did not demonstrate statistical differences in progression-free survival (43 months vs. 28 months for long AR) or overall survival (78 months vs. 142 months for long AR). In patients with BRCA2 mutations alone, a short AR correlated with decreased overall survival (31 months) compared to 126 months for those with a long AR (p=0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AR allelotype length did not correlate with survival in this statistically representative cohort of patients with BRCA1/2 mutations. Potential associations between short AR and outcome in BRCA2-associated ovarian cancers remain to be determined.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Blvd, Suite 160W, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA. Andrew.Li@cshs.org
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McAllister
authors.forename: Beth Y
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Karlan
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D019398:Genes, BRCA1; D024522:Genes, BRCA2; D005838:Genotype; D018095:Germ-Line Mutation; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011944:Receptors, Androgen / Q000235:genetics*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D011944:Receptors, Androgen