The College of Pharmacy discussed the MSc thesis entitled “Retrospective Study of Androgen Receptor Expression with Some Pro-apoptotic Markers in Iraqi Women with Breast Cancer” by the student Noor Sabeeh Saeed and the supervisor, Assistant Professor Dr. Zainab Majeed Hashim, at the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department.
The study aimed to evaluate androgen receptor expression and its association with different tumor stages (stage I to stage IV), as well as its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics, and pro-apoptotic proteins, including Bcl-2-associated X protein (BAX), Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer (BAK), and Bcl-2-associated death promoter (BAD), in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples obtained from breast cancer patients.
The study included formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples from 96 Iraqi women diagnosed with breast cancer. A retrospective study was conducted using the immunohistochemical technique. The expression levels of androgen receptor and pro-apoptotic proteins were evaluated. Furthermore, the associations between androgen receptor expression and pro-apoptotic proteins were analyzed, in addition to clinicopathological characteristics such as patient age, tumor size, lymph node involvement, distant metastasis, tumor stage, histological grade, molecular subtype, estrogen and progesterone receptor status, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).
The results showed that androgen receptor expression was positive in 65.6% of cases. Androgen receptor expression demonstrated a statistically significant positive association with the expression of BAX. In contrast, no significant association was observed between androgen receptor expression and either BAK or BAD. Furthermore, no significant association was found with disease stages or various clinicopathological characteristics.
The study recommended conducting larger studies with greater sample sizes to further confirm the role of the androgen receptor in breast cancer and to investigate its relationship with pro-apoptotic markers in greater detail for a better understanding of disease mechanisms, given its potential to serve as a valuable biomarker for accurate diagnosis and patient monitoring, which may contribute to improved clinical outcomes and patients’ quality of life.
