Clinica di Oncologia Medica, AO Ospedali Riuniti-Ancona, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona 60020, Italy.
Anatomia Patologica, AO Ospedali Riuniti-Ancona, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona 60020, Italy.
Cancers (Basel). 2014 Jun 27;6(3):1351-62. doi: 10.3390/cancers6031351.
Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) are characterized by aggressive tumour biology resulting in a poor prognosis. Androgen receptor (AR) is one of newly emerging biomarker in TNBC. In recent years, ARs have been demonstrated to play an important role in the genesis and in the development of breast cancer, although their prognostic role is still debated. In the present study, we explored the correlation of AR expression with clinical, pathological and molecular features and its impact on prognosis in early TNBC.
ARs were considered positive in case of tumors with >10% nuclear-stained. Survival distribution was estimated by the Kaplan Meier method. The univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. The difference among variables were calculated by chi-square test.
81 TNBC patients diagnosed between January 2006 and December 2011 were included in the analysis. Slides were stained immunohistochemically for estrogen and progesterone receptors, HER-2, Ki-67, ALDH1, e-cadherin and AR. Of the 81 TNBC samples, 18.8% showed positive immunostaining for AR, 23.5% and 44.4% of patients were negative for e-cadherin and ALDH1, respectively. Positive AR immunostaining was inversely correlated with a higher Ki-67 (p < 0.0001) and a lympho-vascular invasion (p = 0.01), but no other variables. Univariate survival analysis revealed that AR expression was not associated with disease-free survival (p = 0.72) or overall survival (p = 0.93).
The expression of AR is associated with some biological features of TNBC, such as Ki-67 and lympho-vascular invasion; nevertheless the prognostic significance of AR was not documented in our analysis. However, since ARs are expressed in a significant number of TNBC, prospective studies in order to determine the biological mechanisms and their potential role as novel treatment target.
三阴性乳腺癌（TNBC）的肿瘤生物学行为具有侵袭性，导致预后不良。雄激素受体（AR）是 TNBC 中新兴的生物标志物之一。近年来，已经证明 AR 在乳腺癌的发生和发展中起重要作用，尽管其预后作用仍存在争议。在本研究中，我们探讨了 AR 表达与临床、病理和分子特征的相关性及其对早期 TNBC 预后的影响。
肿瘤细胞核染色 >10%为 AR 阳性。采用 Kaplan-Meier 法估计生存分布。进行单因素和多因素分析。采用卡方检验比较变量间的差异。
共纳入 2006 年 1 月至 2011 年 12 月诊断的 81 例 TNBC 患者。对雌激素和孕激素受体、HER-2、Ki-67、ALDH1、E-钙黏蛋白和 AR 进行免疫组织化学染色。81 例 TNBC 样本中，18.8%的 AR 免疫染色阳性，23.5%和 44.4%的患者 E-钙黏蛋白和 ALDH1 阴性。AR 免疫染色阳性与 Ki-67 较高（p<0.0001）和淋巴血管浸润（p=0.01）呈负相关，但与其他变量无关。单因素生存分析显示，AR 表达与无病生存率（p=0.72）或总生存率（p=0.93）无关。
AR 的表达与 TNBC 的某些生物学特征相关，如 Ki-67 和淋巴血管浸润；然而，在我们的分析中，AR 的预后意义尚未得到证实。然而，由于 AR 在相当数量的 TNBC 中表达，因此需要进行前瞻性研究以确定其生物学机制及其作为新的治疗靶点的潜在作用。
