# Luminal androgen receptor triple-negative breast cancer (LAR)

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

## TL;DR

Luminal androgen receptor cancers are triple-negative breast cancers that behave like hormone-driven tumours run by the male hormone receptor instead of oestrogen. They are less proliferative, respond less well to chemotherapy, and have shown modest benefit from prostate cancer drugs that block the androgen receptor in phase 2 trials; none is approved for breast cancer.

## Summary

The luminal androgen receptor (LAR) subtype was characterised by androgen receptor signalling and luminal gene expression despite ER negativity, included patients with decreased relapse-free survival, and its cell lines were uniquely sensitive to bicalutamide (Lehmann 2011); it survived the 2016 refinement as one of four tumour-intrinsic subtypes, with a pathological complete response rate of 29 percent across five neoadjuvant datasets against 41 percent for BL1 (Lehmann 2016) and 10 percent in the MD Anderson series (Masuda 2013). Burstein's LAR subtype carries the androgen receptor and the mucin MUC1 as candidate targets and separates from the other three subtypes on DNA copy number (Burstein 2015). The molecular apocrine tumours described in France are the same entity approached from ER-negative disease: ESR1-negative, AR- and FOXA1-positive by transcript, with 67 percent HER2 3+ and 57 percent GCDFP15-positive by immunohistochemistry and a clinically aggressive course (Lehmann-Che 2013); the histological apocrine carcinoma, ER and PR negative and androgen receptor positive, is on its own page. Androgen blockade has been tested in two phase 2 trials: bicalutamide 150 mg daily gave a six-month clinical benefit rate of 19 percent and median progression-free survival of 12 weeks in 26 AR-positive, ER- and PR-negative patients (Gucalp 2013); enzalutamide 160 mg daily gave a 16-week clinical benefit rate of 25 percent in all 118 enrolled and 33 percent in the 78 with 10 percent or more nuclear AR, median progression-free survival 2.9 and 3.3 months and median overall survival 12.7 and 17.6 months, with fatigue the only grade 3 or higher treatment-related event above 2 percent (Traina 2018). Neither drug is approved for breast cancer; PIK3CA mutations are enriched in this subtype, the basis for trials combining androgen blockade with PI3K-pathway inhibitors.

A research classification by gene expression (Lehmann 2011, refined 2016), not a test the NHS runs; treatment follows the triple-negative rows on the parent page.

## Fields

- Kind: Cancer
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: LAR subtype; Luminal androgen receptor TNBC; Molecular apocrine breast cancer (overlapping); AR-positive triple-negative breast cancer
- Tags: breast; tnbc; subtype-page
- Group: breast
- Burden: One of the four tumour-intrinsic triple-negative subtypes; androgen receptor was expressed by immunohistochemistry (over 10 percent of nuclei) in 12 percent of 424 ER- and PR-negative breast cancers screened for a trial (Gucalp 2013).
- Subtypes: Luminal-type gene expression with androgen receptor signalling (LAR); Molecular apocrine carcinoma, HER2-enriched or GCDFP15-positive; Apocrine carcinoma by histology (own page)
- Biomarkers: Androgen receptor by immunohistochemistry (more than 10 percent nuclear staining in the trials; over 0 percent in the enzalutamide trial's intent-to-treat group); FOXA1 and GCDFP15 expression; PIK3CA mutation (enriched); Lower Ki-67 than basal-like tumours

## Sections of this record

The page is a hub with ten sections in reading order; large sections have their own page. The same plan as JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/sections.json

- Overview (on the hub): The TL;DR, the family this cancer belongs to, the organ, who gets it and what the state of the art is. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/#overview
- What it is (on the hub): Anatomy, the subtypes and how they differ, how it is staged, and where advanced disease spreads. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/#what-it-is [3 subtypes]
- Finding it (on the hub): How it shows itself, how it is confirmed, what screening exists, and the biomarkers clinicians test for. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/#finding-it [4 biomarkers]
- Treating it (on the hub): The standard of care by setting, the medicines, surgery and radiotherapy named in it, and the regimens behind them. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/#treating-it [2 settings, 1 decision with options]
- Evidence (on the hub): Trials recruiting now, the landmark trials, the key papers and what they mean, the latest literature, and the milestones year by year. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/#evidence [1 trial]
- The science (on the hub): The molecular landscape: the targets and how often each appears, the pathways, the mechanics stages and the preclinical models. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/#science [2 targets, 1 pathway]
- Where you are (own page): Cases by country, the UK and NHS pathway and other country lenses, and the expert centres with trials on record. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/where-you-are/
- Living with it (on the hub): The decisions you may face, the aids that walk through them, the warnings on record, the first sixty days and the questions to ask. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/#living-with-it [11 questions, 5 red cards]
- What is coming (own page): Everything in development, the open problems and what is being done about them, the roadmaps, and what changed on this record. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/coming/ [3 medicines]
- Data (own page): Every connected record, the notes, the JSON, Markdown and RDF twins, and where the record came from and when it was checked. https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-luminal-androgen-receptor/data/ [18 connected records]

## Standard of care

- Stage II to III: As for triple-negative disease; the subtype's lower pathological complete response rate is a research observation. ([KEYNOTE-522](https://onco.cc/trials/keynote-522/), [Pembrolizumab](https://onco.cc/drugs/pembrolizumab/))
- Metastatic, androgen receptor-positive (trials only): Bicalutamide or enzalutamide showed clinical benefit rates of 19 to 33 percent in phase 2; not approved for breast cancer, so within a trial or after the approved options. ([Bicalutamide](https://onco.cc/drugs/bicalutamide/), [Enzalutamide](https://onco.cc/drugs/enzalutamide/), [Androgen receptor](https://onco.cc/targets/androgen-receptor/))

## 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
- Lehmann-Che, Breast Cancer Res 2013: molecular apocrine breast cancers overexpress HER2 or GCDFP15: https://doi.org/10.1186/bcr3421
- Gucalp, Clin Cancer Res 2013: phase II bicalutamide in androgen receptor-positive, ER-negative metastatic breast cancer: https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-12-3327
- Traina, J Clin Oncol 2018: enzalutamide for androgen receptor-expressing triple-negative breast cancer: https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2016.71.3495

## Connected records

- cancers: [Apocrine carcinoma of the breast](https://onco.cc/cancers/apocrine-carcinoma-breast/), [Basal-like 1 triple-negative breast cancer (BL1)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc-basal-like-1/), [Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc/)
- targets: [Androgen receptor](https://onco.cc/targets/androgen-receptor/)
- drugs: [Bicalutamide](https://onco.cc/drugs/bicalutamide/), [Enzalutamide](https://onco.cc/drugs/enzalutamide/), [Pembrolizumab](https://onco.cc/drugs/pembrolizumab/)
- pathways: [PI3K / AKT / mTOR](https://onco.cc/pathways/pi3k-akt-mtor/)
- terms: [Androgen receptor-positive triple-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/androgen-receptor-positive-tnbc/), [Ki-67 in triple-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/ki-67-in-tnbc/), [Luminal androgen receptor (LAR) subtype](https://onco.cc/terms/luminal-androgen-receptor/), [Pathologic complete response (pCR)](https://onco.cc/terms/pcr/)
- trials: [KEYNOTE-522](https://onco.cc/trials/keynote-522/)

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