Prostatic Androgen Receptor Expression in Men with Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in men worldwide. There has been a stage migration among the population with PCa in developed countries since the introduction of the tumor marker, prostate-specific antigen. It has also been found that patients respond differently to androgen deprivation therapy. A large proportion of PCa arises from androgen-dependent secretory epithelial cells.

This study quantified prostatic androgen receptor (AR) expression in men with prostate cancer (PCa) and evaluated the possible association of the AR expression with various prognostic parameters in patients with PCa.

This study is a cross-sectional, observational and prospective hospital-based study of patients diagnosed with PCa. All the study participants had clinical evaluation, serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and a prostate biopsy for histological confirmation and staging. The histologically proven adenocarcinoma specimens were subjected to immunohistochemistry for AR status. Data analysis was performed using SPSS (R) version 22. AR expression and its relationship to the clinical and histological stages were analysed using the paired t -test, Chi-squared test and Pearson's correlation as appropriate. Significance level ( P -value) was set at 0.05.

Fifty men (aged 38-87 years) were enrolled in the study. Thirty-three (64.0%) patients had positive immunoreactivity with a median intensity of 30.00%. There were a significant association between the AR expression and the serum PSA and a weak positive correlation between AR intensity and PSA (both P- values were 0.025). There was also a significant correlation between the intensity of AR expression and the clinical stage ( P = 0.038); however, no correlation was observed between the AR expression and the Gleason score.

The expression of ARs in men with PCa in our study was 66%, and this showed a correlation with PSA levels. A positive correlation was observed between the intensity of AR expression, PSA and clinical stage. Pre-treatment determination of prostatic AR expression exhibits potential for clinical application as a prognostic biomarker.