scholarly journals Editorial Comment to Prominent response to platinum‐based chemotherapy in a patient with BRCA2 mutant‐neuroendocrine prostate cancer and MDM2 amplification

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Matsumoto ◽  
Masaki Shiota
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cuijian Zhang ◽  
Jinqin Qian ◽  
Yucai Wu ◽  
Zhenpeng Zhu ◽  
Wei Yu ◽  
...  

Background: Therapy-related neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is a lethal castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) subtype that, at present, lacks well-characterized molecular biomarkers. The clinical diagnosis of this disease is dependent on biopsy and histological assessment: methods that are experience-based and easily misdiagnosed due to tumor heterogeneity. The development of robust diagnostic tools for NEPC may assist clinicians in making medical decisions on the choice of continuing anti-androgen receptor therapy or switching to platinum-based chemotherapy.Methods: Gene expression profiles and clinical characteristics data of 208 samples of metastatic CRPC, including castration-resistant prostate adenocarcinoma (CRPC-adeno) and castration-resistant neuroendocrine prostate adenocarcinoma (CRPC-NE), were obtained from the prad_su2c_2019 dataset. Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) was subsequently used to construct a free-scale gene co-expression network to study the interrelationship between the potential modules and clinical features of metastatic prostate adenocarcinoma and to identify hub genes in the modules. Furthermore, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis was used to build a model to predict the clinical characteristics of CRPC-NE. The findings were then verified in the nepc_wcm_2016 dataset.Results: A total of 51 co-expression modules were successfully constructed using WGCNA, of which three co-expression modules were found to be significantly associated with the neuroendocrine features and the NEPC score. In total, four novel genes, including NPTX1, PCSK1, ASXL3, and TRIM9, were all significantly upregulated in NEPC compared with the adenocarcinoma samples, and these genes were all associated with the neuroactive ligand receptor interaction pathway. Next, the expression levels of these four genes were used to construct an NEPC diagnosis model, which was successfully able to distinguish CRPC-NE from CRPC-adeno samples in both the training and the validation cohorts. Moreover, the values of the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) were 0.995 and 0.833 for the training and validation cohorts, respectively.Conclusion: The present study identified four specific novel biomarkers for therapy-related NEPC, and these biomarkers may serve as an effective tool for the diagnosis of NEPC, thereby meriting further study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e17576-e17576
Author(s):  
Takeo Kosaka ◽  
Hiroshi Hongo ◽  
Yota Yasumizu ◽  
Kazuhiro Matshumoto ◽  
Ryuichi Mizuno ◽  
...  

e17576 Background: Treatment emergent or related neuroendocrine prostate cancer (tNEPC) is an aggressive subtype of prostate cancer in patients previously treated with androgen receptor pathway inhibitor (ARPI) as a mechanism of resistance. These patients are typically treated platinum-based chemotherapy using small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The clinical features of tNEPC are poorly defined. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic biomarkers of the patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy in tNEPC. Methods: We reviewed baseline, treatment and outcome data of 41 patients with tNEPC. Clinicopathological factors and laboratory data before administering the first cycle of platinum-based chemotherapy were collected to assess the prognostic factors for overall survival (OS). Definition of tNEPC were based on NEPC morphology on the basis of any current or prior tissue sample, development of liver metastases in the absent of PSA progression, or elevated serum neuron specific enolase (NSE). Results: Median PSA and NSE were 119.8 ng/ml and 18.2 ng/ml, respectively. Twenty-four patients had pathologic features of NEPC. NSE were elevated above the 32 patients. The median OS from the start of platinum-based chemotherapy treatment was 10 months. Univariate analysis revealed that LDH (p = 0.003), absolute monocyte count < 280 (p = 0.022), visceral metastasis (p = 0.014) prior to platinum-based chemotherapy were significantly associated with shorter OS. Multivariate analysis revealed that LDH (p = 0.047), absolute monocyte count < 280, (p = 0.012), visceral metastasis (p = 0.005) prior to platinum-based chemotherapy treatment were independent prognostic indicators for OS. Based on the relative risk of death, NEPC patients before platinum-based chemotherapy were divided into 3 risk groups: low, intermediate and high ( p< 0.001). Conclusions: Our findings provide new insights into the practical implication of NEPC. Our results might be to tailor the management of NEPC treated with platinum-based chemotherapy.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 692
Author(s):  
Roosa Kaarijärvi ◽  
Heidi Kaljunen ◽  
Kirsi Ketola

Neuroendocrine plasticity and treatment-induced neuroendocrine phenotypes have recently been proposed as important resistance mechanisms underlying prostate cancer progression. Treatment-induced neuroendocrine prostate cancer (t-NEPC) is highly aggressive subtype of castration-resistant prostate cancer which develops for one fifth of patients under prolonged androgen deprivation. In recent years, understanding of molecular features and phenotypic changes in neuroendocrine plasticity has been grown. However, there are still fundamental questions to be answered in this emerging research field, for example, why and how do the prostate cancer treatment-resistant cells acquire neuron-like phenotype. The advantages of the phenotypic change and the role of tumor microenvironment in controlling cellular plasticity and in the emergence of treatment-resistant aggressive forms of prostate cancer is mostly unknown. Here, we discuss the molecular and functional links between neurodevelopmental processes and treatment-induced neuroendocrine plasticity in prostate cancer progression and treatment resistance. We provide an overview of the emergence of neurite-like cells in neuroendocrine prostate cancer cells and whether the reported t-NEPC pathways and proteins relate to neurodevelopmental processes like neurogenesis and axonogenesis during the development of treatment resistance. We also discuss emerging novel therapeutic targets modulating neuroendocrine plasticity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyuan Cheng ◽  
Shu Yang ◽  
Yingli Shi ◽  
Runhua Shi ◽  
Yunshin Yeh ◽  
...  

AbstractHOX gene-encoded homeobox proteins control body patterning during embryonic development; the specific expression pattern of HOX genes may correspond to tissue identity. In this study, using RNAseq data of 1019 human cancer cell lines that originated from 24 different anatomic sites, we established HOX codes for various types of tissues. We applied these HOX codes to the transcriptomic profiles of prostate cancer (PCa) samples and found that the majority of prostate adenocarcinoma (AdPCa) samples sustained a prostate-specific HOX code whereas the majority of neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPCa) samples did not, which reflects the anaplastic nature of NEPCa. Also, our analysis showed that the NEPCa samples did not correlate well with the HOX codes of any other tissue types, indicating that NEPCa tumors lose their prostate identities but do not gain new tissue identities. Additionally, using immunohistochemical staining, we evaluated the prostatic expression of HOXB13, the most prominently changed HOX gene in NEPCa. We found that HOXB13 was expressed in both benign prostatic tissues and AdPCa but its expression was reduced or lost in NEPCa. Furthermore, we treated PCa cells with all trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and found that the reduced HOXB13 expression can be reverted. This suggests that ATRA is a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of NEPCa tumors by reversing them to a more treatable AdPCa.


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