Frequency of Androgen Receptor Positivity in Tumors: A Study Evaluating More Than 18,000 Tumors

• Published in: Biomedicines 2024-05, Vol.12 (5), p.957
• Main Authors: Viehweger, Florian, Hoop, Jennifer, Tinger, Lisa-Marie, Bernreuther, Christian, Büscheck, Franziska, Clauditz, Till S, Hinsch, Andrea, Jacobsen, Frank, Luebke, Andreas M, Steurer, Stefan, Hube-Magg, Claudia, Kluth, Martina, Marx, Andreas H, Krech, Till, Lebok, Patrick, Fraune, Christoph, Burandt, Eike, Sauter, Guido, Simon, Ronald, Minner, Sarah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: androgen receptor; Androgen receptors; Androgens; Antibodies; Breast cancer; Breast carcinoma; Cancer; Clear cell-type renal cell carcinoma; Immunohistochemistry; Medical prognosis; Metastases; Ovarian cancer; Ovarian carcinoma; Pathology; Patients; prognosis; Prostate; Prostate cancer; Statistical analysis; Therapeutic targets; tissue microarray; Tumors; Urinary bladder; Urothelial carcinoma; Uterine cancer; Uterus
• ISSN: 2227-9059; 2227-9059
• DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines12050957

Androgen receptor (AR) is a transcription factor expressed in various normal tissues and is a therapeutic target for prostate and possibly other cancers. A TMA containing 18,234 samples from 141 different tumor types/subtypes and 608 samples of 76 different normal tissue types was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. AR positivity was found in 116 tumor types including 66 tumor types (46.8%) with ≥1 strongly positive tumor. Moderate/strong AR positivity was detected in testicular sex cord-stromal tumors (93.3-100%) and neoplasms of the prostate (79.3-98.7%), breast (25.0-75.5%), other gynecological tumors (0.9-100%), kidney (5.0-44.1%), and urinary bladder (5.4-24.2%). Low AR staining was associated with advanced tumor stage (pTa versus pT2-4; < 0.0001) in urothelial carcinoma; advanced pT ( < 0.0001), high tumor grade ( < 0.0001), nodal metastasis ( < 0.0001), and reduced survival ( = 0.0024) in invasive breast carcinoma; high pT ( < 0.0001) and grade ( < 0.0001) in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC); and high pT ( = 0.0055) as well as high grade ( < 0.05) in papillary RCC. AR staining was unrelated to histopathological/clinical features in 157 endometrial carcinomas and in 221 ovarian carcinomas. Our data suggest a limited role of AR immunohistochemistry for tumor distinction and a prognostic role in breast and clear cell RCC and highlight tumor entities that might benefit from AR-targeted therapy.