title: Androgen receptor expression is a predictive marker in chemotherapy-treated patients with endocrine receptor-positive primary breast cancers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The androgen receptor (AR) is intensively discussed as a prognostic and/or predictive marker in breast cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated the value of AR mRNA expression with the Affymetrix HG-U 133A array in 3 different cohorts: a cohort of breast cancer patients who received adjuvant treatment (cohort A; n = 165), a cohort of untreated breast cancer patients (cohort B; n = 200) and a cohort of chemotherapy-treated breast cancer patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumors (cohort C; n = 223).
  
  
  RESULTS
  AR mRNA expression was associated with lower grading (Grades 1 and 2) as well as ER and progesterone receptor (PgR) positivity in all cohorts. In the treated cohort (cohort A), low androgen receptor expression was associated with shorter event-free survival (OR 2,34, 95 % CI 1.01-5.43, p = 0.047) which was not seen in the untreated cohort B. Subgroup analysis revealed that shorter survival of patients with low AR mRNA expression was observed mainly in the ER-positive subgroup of patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. In the validation cohort C we could confirm a benefit of chemotherapy for the group of tumors with high AR mRNA expression (5-year event-free survival (EFS) 74 % versus 57 %, p = 0.013). In this cohort, low AR mRNA expression was associated with shorter event-free survival also in multivariate analysis (OR 2.86, 95 % CI 1.29-6.35, p = 0.010) adjusted for HER2, ki-67, tumor size, age and tumor grade.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We provide evidence that AR expression is associated with chemotherapy responsiveness in ER-positive patients.
authors: Department of Gynecology, University Medical Center, Martinistrasse 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. iwitzel@uke.de
authors: Isabell
authors: I
authors: Witzel
authors: Monika
authors: M
authors: Graeser
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Karn
authors: Markus
authors: M
authors: Schmidt
authors: Ralph
authors: R
authors: Wirtz
authors: Dina
authors: D
authors: Schütze
authors: Alma
authors: A
authors: Rausch
authors: Fritz
authors: F
authors: Jänicke
authors: Karin
authors: K
authors: Milde-Langosch
authors: Volkmar
authors: V
authors: Müller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D011944:Receptors, Androgen / Q000235:genetics*; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000235:genetics; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011944:Receptors, Androgen; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone
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