Associate Professor Theresa Hickey publishes paper in Nature Medicine on a suppression role for AR in breast cancer

Androgen receptor (AR)-directed therapies are controversial in (ER)-α-positive breast cancer treatment. Associate Professor Hickey et al have published a paper entitled “The androgen receptor is a tumor suppressor in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer” that demonstrates AR activation, not suppression, exerts potent anti-tumor activity in multiple disease contexts, including resistance to standard-of-care ER and CDK4/6 inhibitors. Notably, AR agonists combined with standard-of-care agents enhanced therapeutic responses. These findings provide unambiguous evidence that AR has a tumor suppressor role in ER-positive breast cancer and support AR agonism as the optimal AR-directed treatment strategy, revealing a rational therapeutic opportunity.

Congratulations Theresa and team!

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-01168-7