Targeting the Androgen Receptor in Breast Cancer

Suzanne A. W. Fuqua, PhD, professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, discusses targeting the androgen receptor in breast cancer.

The androgen receptor is a nice target, Fuqua says, because it is frequently expressed in breast cancer, and several drugs that target it are already available for other tumor types.

In the past year, genomic work has revealed that breast cancer is an extremely heterogenous disease, with several infrequently-expressed targets. Fuqua says that treatment may have to be tailor-made for each patient because of these low levels of expression based on heterogeneity.

Clinical Pearls

Fuqua says that because of the frequency of expression and the availability of drugs, the oncology community will learn how to apply the knowledge and utility of the androgen receptor to the treatment of breast cancer.

• The androgen receptor is a good target for breast cancer because of the high frequency of expression
• Breast cancer is very heterogenous, with many infrequently-expressed targets
• The high levels of expression and the availability of existing drugs suggest that the oncology community will learn how to use this knowledge in the treatment of breast cancer