Journal of Ovarian Research

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Increased androgen receptor expression in serous carcinoma of the ovary is associated with an improved survival

Björn Nodin1, Nooreldin Zendehrokh1, Jenny Brändstedt1,2, Elise Nilsson1, Jonas Manjer3,2, Donal J Brennan4 and Karin Jirström1*

Author Affiliations

1 Center for Molecular Pathology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, and Skåne Regional Laboratories, Malmö, Sweden

2 Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Surgery, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden

3 The Malmö Diet and Cancer Study, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden

4 UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

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Journal of Ovarian Research 2010, 3:14 doi:10.1186/1757-2215-3-14

Published: 17 June 2010

Abstract

Background

Altered androgen hormone homeostasis and androgen receptor (AR) activity have been implicated in ovarian carcinogenesis but the relationship between AR expression in ovarian cancer and clinical outcome remains unclear.

Methods

In this study, the prognostic impact of AR expression was investigated using immunohistochemistry in tissue microarrays from 154 incident cases of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) in the prospective, population-based cohorts Malmö Diet and Cancer Study and Malmö Preventive Project. A subset of corresponding fallopian tubes (n = 36) with no histopathological evidence of disease was also analysed.

Results

While abundantly expressed in the majority of fallopian tubes with more than 75% positive nuclei in 16/36 (44%) cases, AR was absent in 108/154 (70%) of EOC cases. AR expression was not related to prognosis in the entire cohort, but in the serous subtype (n = 90), AR positivity (> 10% positive nuclei) was associated with a prolonged disease specific survival in univariate (HR= 0.49; 95% CI 0.25-0.96; p= 0.038) and multivariate (HR= 0.46; 95% CI 0.22-0.97; p= 0.042) analysis, adjusted for age, grade and clinical stage.

Conclusions

AR expression is considerably reduced in EOC as compared to fallopian tubes, and in EOC of the serous subtype, high AR expression is a favourable prognostic factor. These results indicate that assessment of AR expression might be of value for treatment stratification of EOC patients with serous ovarian carcinoma.