Cristian Scatena1, Rosa Scarpitta2, Lorenzo Innocenti2, Mario Miccoli3, Rachele Biancotti2, Lucrezia Diodati4, Matteo Ghilli5, Antonio Giuseppe Naccarato2. 1. Division of Pathology, Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. cristian.scatena@unipi.it. 2. Division of Pathology, Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. 3. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. 4. Oncology Unit 2, Pisa University Hospital, Pisa, Italy. 5. Breast Surgery Unit, Pisa University Hospital, Pisa, Italy.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Androgen Receptor (AR) positivity is often displayed in breast cancer and especially in Male Breast Cancer (MBC), where it appears to be a heterogeneous feature, with its expression ranging between 38 and 81% of cases. Given the fact that circulating androgens represent the most important sex hormones in males and that breast carcinogenesis is characteristically subjected to hormonal mechanisms, our purpose was to investigate the clinicopathological significance of AR in MBC assessing if its expression could be associated with parameters of tumor aggressiveness. METHODS: Clinical and pathological data were retrospectively reviewed for male patients with a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer. AR status was detected by immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumoral tissue sections. Correlations between AR expression and histopathological features were assessed using univariate and multiple comparisons where appropriate, assuming P values < 0.05 as statistically significant. RESULTS: The study included 44 consecutive male patients. AR expression ranged between 10 and 98% and the majority of cases presented a moderate to high expression of this receptor. Adopting a 20% PgR cut-off, statistical analyses highlighted a different behavior of AR: in ER+/PgRhigh group, it positively correlated with the other steroid receptors pointing out the importance of hormonal cross-talk: in ER+/PgRlow group, AR status inversely correlated with histological grade and lymph node status. CONCLUSION: Hormonal factors reveal to play a crucial role in MBC carcinogenesis and progression. Intriguingly, in ER+/PgRlow tumors AR expression significantly correlates with lymph node status, hinting at a favorable biological role of AR in this tumor subgroup.
PURPOSE:Androgen Receptor (AR) positivity is often displayed in breast cancer and especially in Male Breast Cancer (MBC), where it appears to be a heterogeneous feature, with its expression ranging between 38 and 81% of cases. Given the fact that circulating androgens represent the most important sex hormones in males and that breast carcinogenesis is characteristically subjected to hormonal mechanisms, our purpose was to investigate the clinicopathological significance of AR in MBC assessing if its expression could be associated with parameters of tumor aggressiveness. METHODS: Clinical and pathological data were retrospectively reviewed for male patients with a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer. AR status was detected by immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumoral tissue sections. Correlations between AR expression and histopathological features were assessed using univariate and multiple comparisons where appropriate, assuming P values < 0.05 as statistically significant. RESULTS: The study included 44 consecutive male patients. AR expression ranged between 10 and 98% and the majority of cases presented a moderate to high expression of this receptor. Adopting a 20% PgR cut-off, statistical analyses highlighted a different behavior of AR: in ER+/PgRhigh group, it positively correlated with the other steroid receptors pointing out the importance of hormonal cross-talk: in ER+/PgRlow group, AR status inversely correlated with histological grade and lymph node status. CONCLUSION: Hormonal factors reveal to play a crucial role in MBC carcinogenesis and progression. Intriguingly, in ER+/PgRlow tumorsAR expression significantly correlates with lymph node status, hinting at a favorable biological role of AR in this tumor subgroup.
Entities:
Keywords:
Androgen receptor; Immunohistochemistry; Male breast cancer; Progesterone receptor
Authors: Christopher P Vellano; Michael G White; Miles C Andrews; Manoj Chelvanambi; Russell G Witt; Joseph R Daniele; Mark Titus; Jennifer L McQuade; Fabio Conforti; Elizabeth M Burton; Matthew J Lastrapes; Gabriel Ologun; Alexandria P Cogdill; Golnaz Morad; Peter Prieto; Alexander J Lazar; Yanshuo Chu; Guangchun Han; M A Wadud Khan; Beth Helmink; Michael A Davies; Rodabe N Amaria; Jeffrey J Kovacs; Scott E Woodman; Sapna Patel; Patrick Hwu; Michael Peoples; Jeffrey E Lee; Zachary A Cooper; Haifeng Zhu; Guang Gao; Hiya Banerjee; Mike Lau; Jeffrey E Gershenwald; Anthony Lucci; Emily Z Keung; Merrick I Ross; Laura Pala; Eleonora Pagan; Rossana Lazcano Segura; Qian Liu; Mikayla S Borthwick; Eric Lau; Melinda S Yates; Shannon N Westin; Khalida Wani; Michael T Tetzlaff; Lauren E Haydu; Mikhila Mahendra; XiaoYan Ma; Christopher Logothetis; Zachary Kulstad; Sarah Johnson; Courtney W Hudgens; Ningping Feng; Lorenzo Federico; Georgina V Long; P Andrew Futreal; Swathi Arur; Hussein A Tawbi; Amy E Moran; Linghua Wang; Timothy P Heffernan; Joseph R Marszalek; Jennifer A Wargo Journal: Nature Date: 2022-06-15 Impact factor: 69.504