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Apocrine breast cancers are made of large cells resembling sweat-gland cells. They lack oestrogen and progesterone receptors but carry the androgen receptor, so the triple-negative ones sit in the luminal androgen receptor group and are the tumours in which androgen-blocking drugs have been tried.
Apocrine carcinoma shows distinct morphology (abundant eosinophilic granular cytoplasm and prominent nucleoli) with a characteristic steroid receptor profile that is oestrogen and progesterone receptor negative and androgen receptor positive; strictly defined, apocrine carcinomas express either HER2 or EGFR, which with androgen receptor positivity makes them candidates for targeted therapies (Vranic 2013). In the 5th edition of the WHO classification the entity is discussed as carcinoma with apocrine differentiation, reflecting debate about how much apocrine morphology is needed (Cserni 2020). The transcriptionally defined molecular apocrine group, ESR1-negative and AR- and FOXA1-positive, was 67 percent HER2 3+ and 57 percent GCDFP15-positive by immunohistochemistry and clinically aggressive, and almost all (94 percent) carried the HER2 3+ or GCDFP15-positive signature that none of the basal-like controls did (Lehmann-Che 2013). The HER2-negative apocrine tumours are therefore the histological face of the luminal androgen receptor subtype, whose phase 2 trials of bicalutamide and enzalutamide are on that page; the HER2-positive ones are treated as HER2-positive breast cancer.
A rare special type; the WHO classification counts carcinomas with apocrine differentiation among the special types and the molecular apocrine expression group overlaps the luminal androgen receptor subtype (Cserni 2020; Lehmann-Che 2013).
Most cancers start in the ducts and drain first to the axillary nodes, which is why the armpit is checked and a sentinel node is sampled.
Same organ: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), Breast cancer (all types), HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Male breast cancer, Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), High-risk early HR-positive breast cancer, HR-positive metastatic breast cancer after CDK4/6 inhibitors, HER2-low and HER2-ultralow metastatic breast cancer, Early HER2-positive breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer with brain metastases, Early triple-negative breast cancer, Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, Basal-like 1 triple-negative breast cancer (BL1), Basal-like 2 triple-negative breast cancer (BL2), Mesenchymal triple-negative breast cancer (M), Mesenchymal stem-like triple-negative breast cancer (MSL), Luminal androgen receptor triple-negative breast cancer (LAR), Immunomodulatory triple-negative breast cancer (IM), Metaplastic breast carcinoma, Carcinoma with medullary pattern (medullary breast cancer), Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast, Secretory carcinoma of the breast, BRCA-associated triple-negative breast cancer, Inflammatory breast cancer, Paget disease of the nipple, Phyllodes tumour of the breast, Invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast, Invasive breast carcinoma of no special type (invasive ductal carcinoma), Tubular carcinoma of the breast, Mucinous carcinoma of the breast, Papillary carcinomas of the breast (encapsulated, solid and invasive papillary), Invasive cribriform carcinoma of the breast, Invasive breast carcinoma with medullary pattern (medullary carcinoma), Invasive micropapillary carcinoma of the breast, Neuroendocrine neoplasms of the breast, Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS)
As for triple-negative disease of no special type; androgen receptor antagonists only within trials (clinical benefit rates 19 to 33 percent in phase 2).
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Query for this cancer: (TITLE:"Apocrine carcinoma of the breast" OR ABSTRACT:"Apocrine carcinoma of the breast" OR TITLE:"Carcinoma with apocrine differentiation" OR ABSTRACT:"Carcinoma with apocrine differentiation" OR TITLE:"Apocrine breast cancer" OR ABSTRACT:"Apocrine breast cancer" OR TITLE:"Molecular apocrine carcinoma overlapping expression subtype" OR ABSTRACT:"Molecular apocrine carcinoma overlapping expression subtype") AND (treatment OR therapy OR trial OR survival OR diagnosis). Results are unfiltered search hits about Apocrine carcinoma of the breast, not a curated reading list.
The targets of this cancer's medicines and the ones linked to it directly.
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A swollen painful calf, or sudden breathlessness with chest pain; the tamoxifen boxed warning covers pulmonary embolism and stroke.
Seizure risk: caution with drugs that lower the seizure threshold.
See all on the product pages:BicalutamideEnzalutamide·Printable cards in the navigator
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