Charles D. Sturgis
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, USA
Title: Androgen receptors in breast carcinoma, what pathologists and breast cancer clinicians should know
Biography
Biography: Charles D. Sturgis
Abstract
Invasive breast carcinoma is the most common infiltrating visceral malignancy in women in the USA. More than 200,000 cases were reported in 2015. The role of the androgen receptors (ARs) in mammary carcinogenesis is a current topic of scientific investigation. AR expression is present in normal mammary epithelium and in many invasive breast cancers and cell lines. ARs belong to a family of intracellular steroid hormone receptors and function as ligand dependent transcription factors that regulate target gene expression. The AR gene is located on the X chromosome at q11 with no corresponding allele on the Y chromosome, and the gene functions as a single copy. Recent studies have queried the value of ARs as predictors of therapeutic response and have sought to address roles for ARs as therapeutic targets for antiandrogenic targeted endocrine therapies. The majority of studies regarding AR expression in breast cancers have focused on triple negative breast carcinomas. Because of the high reported proportion of AR positivity (36%) in triple negative invasive carcinomas, some authors have proposed that routine assessment of ARs should be pursued. In addition, a number of published data sets from phase II trials have suggested proof of principle for efficacy and minimal toxicity of anti-androgens in treating patients with locally advanced and/or metastatic AR positive breast carcinoma. In this oral presentation, I reveiw and summarize salient literature regarding assessment of ARs in invasive breast carcinoma and also discuss novel concepts for the study of ARs in mammary ductal carcinoma in situ.