Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug 23;30(1):793.
doi: 10.1186/s40001-025-03072-7.

Clinical significance of androgen receptor in unilateral invasive breast cancer in women

Menghan Cao #  1 , Di Pan #  2 , Yuqi Li #  3 , Zicheng Pei  1 , Runbang Wang  4 , Bo Zhang  5 , Chaorong Bian  4 , Qinghao Gu  4 , Pengfei Qu  6 , Chenchen Yu  4 , Haonan Liu  7 , Zhengxiang Han  8
Affiliations

Clinical significance of androgen receptor in unilateral invasive breast cancer in women

Menghan Cao et al. Eur J Med Res. .

Abstract

Objective: To assess the prognostic relevance of androgen receptor (AR) expression in patients following modified radical surgery for invasive breast cancer.

Methods: A cohort of 515 patients who underwent modified radical mastectomy for breast cancer from July 2016 to November 2017 was analyzed. Immunohistochemistry was employed to determine the expression levels of AR, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2), cell proliferation nuclear antigen (Ki-67), oncogene (P-53), cytokeratin 5/6 (CK5/6), topoisomerase-2 (TOPO-2), and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The correlation between AR expression and clinicopathological features as well as prognosis was examined. Multifactorial analysis using Cox proportional risk regression identified independent prognostic factors for disease-free survival (DFS), and a nomogram model was developed based on these factors.

Results: Patients in the AR-positive group demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of low histologic grade (grade 1-2), ER positive, PR positive, TOPO-2-negative, CK5/6-negative, and EGFR-negative as compared to the AR-negative group (P < 0.05). Among ER( +)/HER-2(-) and ER( +)/HER-2( +) patients with breast cancer, AR-positive individuals exhibited prolonged DFS (P < 0.05). Conversely, in ER(-)/HER-2( +) and ER(-)/HER-2(-) patients with breast cancer, AR expression did not significantly influence disease-free survival (P > 0.05). Multifactorial regression analysis identified AR/ER ratio, histological classification, and lymph node metastasis as independent prognostic factors for DFS (all P < 0.05). The developed nomogram model underscored the significance of histological classification as the primary predictive factor for patient outcomes, followed by AR/ER ratio and lymph node metastasis CONCLUSION: AR expression holds varying prognostic implications across different breast cancer subtypes, with AR positivity indicating a favorable prognosis, particularly in ER-positive tumors.

Keywords: AR/ER; Androgen receptors; Breast cancer; Endocrine resistance; Prognosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University (XYFY2022-KL321). Due to the retrospective nature of this study, with the approval of the Ethics Committee of Xuzhou Medical University Affiliated Hospital, we waived the requirement for written informed consent. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Disease-free survival curves for breast cancer patients
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
AR expression in invasive breast cancer in different subgroups
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Kaplan–Meier curve analysis of the AR expression and disease-free survival in ER(+)/HER-2(−) invasive breast cancer
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Kaplan–Meier curve analysis of the relationship between the AR expression and disease-free survival in ER(+)/HER-2(+) breast cancer
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Kaplan–Meier curve analysis of the relationship between the AR expression and disease-free survival in ER(-)/HER-2(+) breast cancer
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Kaplan–Meier curve analysis of the relationship between the AR expression and disease-free survival in ER(−)/HER-2(-) breast cancer
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Kaplan–Meier curve analysis of the disease-free survival according to AR expression in patients not receiving adjuvant therapy (7A).Kaplan–Meier curve analysis of the disease-free survival according to AR expression in patients receiving adjuvant therapy (7B)
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Kaplan–Meier curve analysis of the Subgroup analysis based on different expression levels of ER
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Kaplan–Meier curve analysis of the relationship between AR/ER ratio and disease-free survival in ER-positive/AR-positive breast cancer
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Graph depicting the prognostic model for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-year disease-free survival
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
Graphs depicting the ROC evaluation plot the 1-year prognostic prediction model’s (A) training set and (B) validation set; for the 3-year prognostic prediction model’s (C) training set and (D) the validation set; for the 5-year prognostic prediction model’s (E) training set and (F) validation set
Fig. 12
Fig. 12
Calibration plots depicting the 1-year disease-free survival for the (A) training set and (B) validation set; that depicting the 3-year disease-free survival for the (C) training set and (D) validation set; that depicting the 5-year disease-free survival for the (E) training set and (F) validation set
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Chen J, Hao L, Qian X, et al. Machine learning models based on immunological genes to predict the response to neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer patients. Front Immunol. 2022;13: 948601. 10.3389/fimmu.2022.948601. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang J, Zhang Y, Li L, et al. Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPPA) promotes breast cancer progression. Bioengineered. 2022;13(1):291–307. 10.1080/21655979.2021.2000724. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen QF, Chang L, Su Q, et al. Clinical importance of serum secreted clusterin in predicting invasive breast cancer and treatment responses. Bioengineered. 2021;12(1):278–85. 10.1080/21655979.2020.1868732. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Itani N, Grogan N, Mott S, et al. Metastatic presentations of previously treated early-stage breast cancer patients and association with survival. Clin Breast Cancer. 2019;3(S1526–8209):30735–9. 10.1016/j.clbc.2019.11.004. - PubMed
    1. Skuli SJ, Sheng JY, Bantug ET, et al. Survivorship care visits in a high-risk population of breast cancer survivors. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2019;173(3):701–8. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms