Albasri AM, Elkablawy MA. Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of androgen receptor overexpression in colorectal cancer. Experience from Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Med J 2020;
40:893-900. [PMID:
31522216 PMCID:
PMC6790489 DOI:
10.15537/smj.2019.9.24204]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Objectives:
To examine the androgen receptor (AR) status in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients by the immunohistochemical method and to correlate the findings with all available clinicopathological parameters of prognostic significance.
Methods:
Archival tumor samples were studied using immunohistochemistry for AR expression in 324 patients with CRC. Patients were diagnosed at the Pathology Department at a tertiary care Hospital, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia, between January 2006 and December 2017.
Results:
There is a complete lack of AR expression in normal colonic mucosa; however, AR was expressed in 16 cases (40%) of colorectal adenoma. In CRC, AR expression was high in 118 cases (36.4%). There were no significant correlations between AR expression and gender, age, tumor histologic type, and tumor location. However, AR expression revealed a significant correlation with tumor size (p=0.026), tumor differentiation (p=0.047), American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging (p=0.043), lymph node positivity (p=0.018), lymphovascular invasion (p=0.018), and distant metastasis (p=0.049). In univariate Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, there was a significant (p=0.002) difference in overall survival between AR positive and negative tumors in favor of the latter. In multivariate (COX) models, high AR expression (p=0.002), AJCC (p<0.001), and lymphovascular invasion (p<0.001) were the only significant independent prognostic indicators of overall survival in CRC.
Conlusion:
Our study showed that the patients with higher AR expression had a significantly poorer survival rate, AR expression had the potential to be a prognostic marker of CRC.
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