# Luminal androgen receptor (LAR) subtype

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/luminal-androgen-receptor/  
OnCo record `luminal-androgen-receptor` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Luminal androgen receptor is one of the four molecular subtypes of triple-negative breast cancer. Its cells look and behave like hormone-driven luminal cells but run on the androgen receptor instead of oestrogen, which makes them slower growing, less responsive to chemotherapy and the target of trials with prostate cancer drugs.

## Summary

The LAR subtype was one of six triple-negative expression clusters identified in 587 tumours, characterised by androgen receptor signalling, including patients with decreased relapse-free survival, and with cell lines uniquely sensitive to bicalutamide (Lehmann 2011). It survived the 2016 refinement to four tumour-specific subtypes (BL1, BL2, M and LAR) and had a pathological complete response rate of 29 percent across five neoadjuvant datasets against 41 percent for BL1 and 18 percent for BL2 (Lehmann 2016), and 10 percent in the MD Anderson series (Masuda 2013). Burstein's independent classification also finds an LAR group, with the androgen receptor and MUC1 as candidate targets and a distinct DNA copy number profile (Burstein 2015). The subtype page tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor carries the overlap with molecular apocrine and histological apocrine carcinoma and the bicalutamide and enzalutamide trials; the androgen receptor-positive term carries the immunohistochemistry thresholds.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: LAR; LAR subtype of TNBC; TNBCtype LAR; Luminal AR subtype
- Tags: breast; tnbc

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen_receptor
- Lehmann, J Clin Invest 2011: identification of human triple-negative breast cancer subtypes (BL1, BL2, IM, M, MSL, LAR): https://doi.org/10.1172/jci45014
- Lehmann, PLoS One 2016: refinement of triple-negative breast cancer molecular subtypes to four (TNBCtype-4): https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157368
- Masuda, Clin Cancer Res 2013: differential response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy among 7 triple-negative subtypes: https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-13-0799
- Burstein, Clin Cancer Res 2015: four triple-negative subtypes (LAR, MES, BLIS, BLIA) with distinct prognoses: https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-14-0432

## Connected records

- cancers: [Apocrine carcinoma of the breast](https://onco.cc/cancers/apocrine-carcinoma-breast/), [Luminal androgen receptor triple-negative breast cancer (LAR)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/), [Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc/)
- targets: [Androgen receptor](https://onco.cc/targets/androgen-receptor/)
- terms: [Androgen receptor-positive triple-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/androgen-receptor-positive-tnbc/), [Basal-like breast cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/basal-like/), [Pathologic complete response (pCR)](https://onco.cc/terms/pcr/)

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