Intrinsic Subtypes and Androgen Receptor Gene Expression in Primary Breast Cancer. A Meta-Analysis

Simple Summary Breast cancer (BC) is the second largest cause of death for cancer in women worldwide. Different studies have shown that the androgen receptor (AR), a cytoplasmic ligand-dependent transcription factor, may play a role as a marker of BC biology. We aimed to assess the clinical significance of AR gene expression in BC by meta-analysis of large-scale microarray transcriptomic datasets. Our findings suggest that high mRNA levels of AR have the potential to be a promising non-invasive prognostic biomarker for the identification of the less aggressive BC subtypes. The androgen receptor (AR) is frequently expressed in breast cancer (BC), but its association with clinical and biological parameters of BC patients remains unclear. Here, we investigated the association of AR gene expression according to intrinsic BC subtypes by meta-analysis of large-scale microarray transcriptomic datasets. Sixty-two datasets including 10315 BC patients were used in the meta-analyses. Interestingly, AR mRNA level is significantly increased in patients categorized with less aggressive intrinsic molecular subtypes including, Luminal A compared to Basal-like (standardized mean difference, SMD: 2.12; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.88 to 2.35; p < 0.001) or when comparing Luminal B to Basal-like (SMD: 1.53; CI: 1.33 to 1.72; p < 0.001). The same trend was observed when analyses were performed using immunohistochemistry-based surrogate subtypes. Consistently, the AR mRNA expression was higher in patients with low histological grade (p < 0.001). Furthermore, our data revealed higher levels of AR mRNA in BC patients expressing either estrogen or progesterone receptors (p < 0.001). Together, our findings indicate that high mRNA levels of AR are associated with BC subgroups with the less aggressive clinical features.

Automated summary

Studies have shown that high levels of AR mRNA may serve as a promising non-invasive prognostic biomarker, aiding in the identification of less aggressive BC subtypes.