ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Breast Cancer
The Impacts of Androgen Receptor on Treatment Response and Survival in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A Single-Center Retrospective Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1General Surgery Department, Sincan Research and Training Hospital, Ankara, Türkiye
- 2Surgical Oncology Department, Etlik Ankara City Hospital, Ankara, Türkiye
- 3Clinical Pathology Department, Health Sciences University Ankara Oncology Research and Training Hospital, Ankara, Türkiye
- 4Surgical Oncology Department, Health Sciences University Ankara Oncology Research and Training Hospital, Ankara, Türkiye
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Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype characterized by the absence of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2 expression, resulting in limited treatment options. The present study explored the association between androgen receptor (AR) expression and clinicopathological features, as well as its impact on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and its prognostic and predictive value in patients with TNBC. Method: In this single-center, retrospective study, we considered the data from 81 TNBC patients undergoing post-NACT surgery between January 1, 2017 and January 1, 2023 at the Ankara Oncology Health Application and Research Center of Health Sciences University (SUAM). Patients were grouped by their AR expression status and compared by clinicopathological features, treatment responses, and survival outcomes. Results: We detected AR positivity in 20 patients (26%) but found no significant association between AR expression and patients' demographics. Yet, AR positivity was significantly associated with post-NACT axillary lymph node metastasis (p = 0.017), and the complete axillary response was significantly more prevalent in AR-negative patients (p = 0.002). Pre-and post-NACT Ki-67 values were significantly higher in the AR-negative group (p < 0.001 and p = 0.024, respectively). The findings showed no significant impact of AR status on disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (p = 0.132 and p = 0.079, respectively). This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article Conclusion: Overall, we concluded that AR negativity was linked to increased proliferative activity and complete axillary response in TNBC patients. AR positivity, on the other hand, was associated with residual nodal disease. Ultimately, we could show no significant influence of AR expression on survival. Our findings suggest that AR may serve as a potential biomarker for predicting axillary response in TNBC.
Keywords: androgen receptor, Axillary lymph node metastasis, Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, Pathological response, Triplenegative breast cancer
Received: 29 Nov 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Karaçam, Sağdıç, Bulut, Kutun and Özaslan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Seda Karaçam
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