Evaluation of androgen receptor status in urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder in Egyptian patients: an immunohistochemical study

Abstract

Background: The roles of androgen and androgen receptor (AR) signaling in the oncogenesis of prostate cancer are very well established. What is more poorly understood is the role of AR in other human malignancies including bladder cancer. The incidence of bladder cancer is much higher in males than females, but the exact etiology has not been fully elucidated. This gender disparity has raised the possibility of the AR pathway being involved in the genesis of this disease. Thereby, the aim of this work was to evaluate the expression of AR in a group of Egyptian patients with urothelial bladder carcinoma and to assess whether its expression was correlated with other pathological tumor features. Urothelial bladder carcinoma tissue samples from 50 patients were studied by immunostaining for AR expression in tumor cells.Results: AR was positively expressed in 29 (58%) patients, while negative expression was observed in 21 (42%) patients. No statistically significant difference in AR expression with respect to tumor grade (P = 0.07) and pT stage (P = 0.09) was observed. Conclusions:The results obtained in this study indicates a clinical value of the AR expression in Egyptian patients with urothelial bladder carcinoma, providing the basis for further studies to evaluate its role and the possibility of new target-based therapies for urothelial bladder carcinoma.

Blocking Androgen Receptor/Androgen Receptor Variant7 Decreases Metastasis of Estrogen Receptor Positive Breast Cancer Cells Through Modulating Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition

“…Several studies have pointed that the aberrant expression of AR/ARV7 is a chief factor that contributes to progression in many cancers, including breast (Macedo 2006), prostate (Adam et al, 2019), hepatocellular (Yeh and Chen 2010), bladder (Wagih and Kamel 2020), oral squamous cell carcinoma (Wu et al 2015) and gastric cancer (Tian et al 2013) by endorsing tumor cell growth. However, few studies have focused on metastasis, which is a complex procedure comprising remodeling of the extracellular matrix and leading to epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT).…”