Clinical characteristics, prognosis and treatment of androgen-receptor-positive triple-negative breast cancer

This literature review focuses on the prognostic, clinical, and therapeutic characteristics of androgen receptor-positive triple-negative breast cancer. Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant tumor among the female population. It accounts for about 21 % of all malignant neoplasms in Russia. The most unfavorable BC subtype is triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). TNBC is a subgroup of malignant breast tumors characterized by an aggressive progress and poor prognosis. It mostly affetcs young women. Despite the high sensitivity to neoadjuvant polychemotherapy, locoregional recurrence rate for TNBC is rarther high. Survival rate for patinets with TNBC is lower compared to patinets with other BC subtypes. Due to the widespread introduction of molecular genetic research methods into the algorithms for BC diagnosis, we can claim that TNBC is a heterogeneous group of tumors with different prognosis, clinical characteristics and response to therapy. Currently, drug therapy for TNBC is based solely on systemic chemotherapy. National treatment standards do not suggest any methods to treat this type of tumor. However, according to recent studies, antiandrogenic drugs can be successfully used in the TNBC therapy. The study of androgen receptor-positive triple-negative breast cancer seems promising for two reasons. The first reason is the availability of IHC diagnostics in most oncological centers in Russia. The second reason is the availability of relatively inexpensive endocrine therapy.