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Review
. 2015 Dec;6(5-6):206-13.
doi: 10.1007/s12672-015-0232-3. Epub 2015 Jul 23.

Androgen Receptor Biology in Triple Negative Breast Cancer: a Case for Classification as AR+ or Quadruple Negative Disease

Valerie N Barton  1 , Nicholas C D'Amato  1 , Michael A Gordon  1 , Jessica L Christenson  1 , Anthony Elias  1 , Jennifer K Richer  2
Affiliations
Review

Androgen Receptor Biology in Triple Negative Breast Cancer: a Case for Classification as AR+ or Quadruple Negative Disease

Valerie N Barton et al. Horm Cancer. 2015 Dec.

Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype that lacks estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) amplification. Due to the absence of these receptors, TNBC does not respond to traditional endocrine or HER2-targeted therapies that improve patient prognosis in other breast cancer subtypes. TNBC has a poor prognosis, and currently, there are no effective targeted therapies. Some TNBC tumors express androgen receptor (AR) and may benefit from AR-targeted therapies. Here, we review the literature on AR in TNBC and propose that TNBC be further sub-classified as either AR+ TNBC or quadruple negative breast cancer since targeting AR may represent a viable therapeutic option for a subset of TNBC.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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