Expression of Androgen receptor in primary Breast Cancer.

Breast carcinoma has become the most common malignancy in the female population and is one of the leading causes of mortality among women in India. The most important prognostic factors are the tumor size, histological grade and lymphnode stage. The importance of several molecular markers in breast cancer has been of considerable interest during recent years not only as prognostic markers but also as predictors of response to therapy. Especially, the steroid receptors (estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR)), Her2neu, CK5/6 and Ki67 have gained increasing interest. The androgen receptor (AR) is one such newly emerging biomarker. However the clinical significance of its expression in breast cancer patient remains unknown. In this study, the incidence of IDC-NOS type forms the highest among primary breast cancers. Luminal A subtype constitute majority of cases followed by Luminal B subtype. AR is expressed in 60% of cases of Primary breast carcinoma. The expression of AR is significantly associated with ER and PR expression and seen more in Luminal A and Luminal B subtype which have better prognosis and hence it could be an independent prognostic factor