Purpose To investigate the expression and significance of androgen receptor (AR) in breast carcinoma with different ER and PR status.Methods Immunohistochemical method was used to detect AR, ER and PR expression in 173 cases of breast carcinoma, and all the cases were grouped according to: (1) AR status: AR~- positive subgroup and AR~- negative subgroup, (2) ER status: En subgroup (negative for both ER and PR), Ep subgroup (positive for ER and/or PR), (3)AR, ER and PR status: En-AR~+ subgroup (AR~- positive cases of En subgroup), En-AR~- subgroup (AR~-negative cases of En subgroup), Ep-AR~+ subgroup (AR~- positive cases of Ep subgroup), and Ep-AR~- subgroup (AR~-negative cases of Ep subgroup).En-AR~- subgroup also was called negativE-for-all subgroup, and the rest three subgroups were called partly-or-completely positive subgroup (positive for at least one of the three markers), and then, the groups were compared with clinicopathological features.Results The positive rate of AR was 62.8% (54/86) in Ep subgroup and 37.9%(33/87) in En subgroup, and there was significant difference between them (P=0.001).Compared to AR~-negative subgroup, AR~-positive subgroup had smaller tumor size, less mitosis count and lower grade(P<0.05).Compared to the other three subgroups, En-AR~- subgroup had more mitosis count and higher grade (P<0.01).In En subgroup,AR~- positive cases had less mitosis count and lower grade (P<0.05), and in Ep subgroup,AR~- positive cases had higher stage(P=0.000), but no significant difference were found among partly or completely positive subgroups.Conclusions The expression of AR may play a different role in breast carcinoma with different ER and PR status, because it indicates good prognosis in negative for both ER and PR subgroup, but bad in ER and/or PR positive subgroup. When choosing a personalized therapy, all the combinations of hormone receptor status should be considered for the patients.