Prognostic value of androgen receptor expression in operable triple-negative breast cancer: a retrospective analysis based on a tissue microarray

The aim of this study is to analyze the prognostic value of androgen receptor (AR) expression for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Clinical data of these patients were collected and analyzed, and immunohistochemical staining for AR was performed on tissue microarrays of operable breast cancer from 287 patients with TNBC, who were treated at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from January 1995 to December 2008. AR expression was found in 25.8% of the cases with TNBC. TNBC patients with AR negative have a higher proportion of positive lymph node. A significant correlation was found between AR expression and disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Univariated analysis indicated that AR expression had a significant prognostic value in TNBC patients, whereas multivariate analysis indicated that AR was a significant independent prognostic factor of DFS (P = 0.032) in all patients. Our results suggested that AR was a favorable prognostic factor of DFS and OS in patients with TNBC. Therefore, TNBC may be further divided into two subtypes according to AR status.