Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, Italy.
Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, Meldola, Italy; Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Semin Cancer Biol. 2020 Feb;60:132-137. doi: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2019.04.002. Epub 2019 Apr 16.
The possibility that a receptor for androgen is expressed in Breast Cancer (BC) is fascinating given that the tumor is predominantly estrogen-dependent. The androgen receptor (AR) is emerging as a new marker and a potential new therapeutic target in the treatment of BC patients. The recent availability of selective AR inhibitors (e.g. bicalutamide, enzalutamide, apalutamide) approved for the treatment of prostate cancer has opened up the possibility to use them in BC patients whose tumors express AR. However, AR appears to have various functions according to the BC subtype, e.g. ER-positive or triple negative BC and the patient prognosis is different on the basis of the presence or absence of estrogen and progesterone receptors. Moreover, a different AR expression was seen according to the various ethnicities. Of note, in population at low economical income, the availability of anti-AR compounds at low cost could open the possibility to treat AR-positive triple negative BC that are highly present in these populations. Up to now, AR detection is not routinely performed in BC. The standardization of AR detection methods could render AR an easily detectable marker in primary BC and metastatic samples. Nevertheless, the overall concordance of 60% of AR expression in primary tumor and metastasis implies that a clinician who need the AR value to give anti-AR therapy should have the data on both the tumor materials. Following the comprehensive studies on prostate cancer the possibility to test AR on liquid biopsies suggest the use of this biomarker for a real-time disease monitoring. Finally, considering the possibility to treat patients with immune checkpoint inhibitors there is the need to know the relation between microenvironment and AR in BC.
鉴于肿瘤主要依赖于雌激素，雄激素受体（AR）在乳腺癌（BC）中表达的可能性令人着迷。AR 作为 BC 患者治疗的新标志物和潜在新的治疗靶点正在出现。最近，一些选择性 AR 抑制剂（如比卡鲁胺、恩扎鲁胺、阿帕鲁胺）获批用于治疗前列腺癌，这为那些肿瘤表达 AR 的 BC 患者使用这些药物提供了可能性。然而，根据 BC 亚型，AR 似乎具有不同的功能，例如雌激素受体阳性或三阴性 BC，并且根据雌激素和孕激素受体的存在与否，患者的预后也不同。此外，根据不同的种族，AR 的表达也不同。值得注意的是，在经济收入较低的人群中，廉价的抗 AR 化合物的可用性可能为治疗这些人群中高度存在的 AR 阳性三阴性 BC 提供了可能性。到目前为止，AR 检测并未在 BC 中常规进行。AR 检测方法的标准化可能会使 AR 成为原发性 BC 和转移性样本中易于检测的标志物。然而，原发性肿瘤和转移灶中 AR 表达的总体一致性为 60%，这意味着需要 AR 值进行抗 AR 治疗的临床医生应该同时拥有肿瘤材料的数据。在对前列腺癌进行全面研究后，检测 AR 液体活检的可能性表明该生物标志物可用于实时疾病监测。最后，考虑到用免疫检查点抑制剂治疗患者的可能性，有必要了解 BC 中微环境与 AR 之间的关系。
