The prognostic significance of androgen receptor and β-catenin immunohistochemical expression in urothelial carcinoma with and without detrusor muscle invasion from an Egyptian institution

Androgen receptor (AR) activation plays an important role in the promotion and progression of urothelial tumorigenesis. Also, dysregulation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway has also been linked to bladder cancer growth. However, cross talk between the two pathways in remains unclear in bladder cancer. This study investigated the prognostic significance of AR and β-catenin expression and their relationship to different clinic-pathological parameters, recurrence free and progression free survival.

106 urothelial carcinoma cases were used to study the immunohistochemical expression of AR and β-catenin. Log-Rank test to compare survival between groups.

Androgen receptor positivity was in 37 (34.9%) cases. Both aberrant β-catenin and AR positivity were associated with higher tumor grade (p = 0.033 and p = 0.037 respectively) and muscle invasion (p = 0.007 and p = 0.039 respectively). Aberrant β-catenin only showed statistically significant association with tumor diameter (p = 0.036), tumor stage (p = 0.038), LN metastasis (p = 0.001), tumor recurrence (p = 0.026) and tumor progression (p = 0.01). Cases with aberrant β-catenin showed higher AR positivity (p = 0.018).

Our study highlighted important information about the link between Wnt/β-catenin and AR pathway during the progression of transitional urothelial carcinoma with aberrant β-catenin could be used as a prognostic marker.