Expression of the Androgen Receptor, pAkt, and pPTEN in Breast Cancer and Their Potential in Prognostication.
BACKGROUND
Importance of androgen receptor (AR) as an independent prognostic marker in Pakistani women with breast cancer (BCa) remains unexplored. Our aim was to identify the expression and potential prognostic value of AR, its upstream regulator (pAkt) and target gene (pPTEN) in invasive BCa.


METHODS
This study used a cohort of 200 Pakistani women with invasive BCa diagnosed during 2002-2011. Expression of AR, pAkt and pPTEN was determined on formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue sections by immunohistochemistry. The association of AR, pAkt and pPTEN with clinicopathological parameters was determined. Survival analyses were undertaken on patients with ≥5years of follow-up (n=82).


RESULTS
Expression of AR, pAkt and pPTEN was observed in 47.5%, 81.3% and 50.6% of patients, respectively. AR-expressing tumors were low or intermediate in grade (P<.001) and expressed ER (P=.002) and PR (P=.001). Patients with AR+tumors had significantly higher OS (Mean OS=10.2±0.465years) compared to patients with AR-tumors (Mean OS=5.8±0.348years) (P=.047). Furthermore, AR-positivity was associated with improved OS in patients receiving endocrine therapy (P=.020). Patients with AR+/pAkt+/pPTEN-tumors, had increased OS (Mean OS=7.1±0.535years) compared to patients with AR-/pAkt+/pPTEN-tumors (Mean OS=5.1±0.738years).


CONCLUSIONS
AR-expressing tumors are frequently characterized by low or intermediate grade tumors, expressing ER and PR. In addition, expression of AR, pAkt and pPTEN, could be considered in prognostication of patients with invasive BCa.
Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Aisha
A
Sultana
Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Romana
R
Idress
Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Zulfiqar Ali
ZA
Naqvi
Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Iqbal
I
Azam
Department of Surgery, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Shaista
S
Khan
Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Anwar Ali
AA
Siddiqui
Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. Electronic address: elnasir.lalani@aku.edu.
El-Nasir
EN
Lalani