11530 Background: Androgen receptor splice variant 7 (AR-V7) is linked to a priori resistance to abiraterone acetate and enzalutamide. However, AR-V7 negativity does not necessarily indicate responsiveness and up to 20% of AR-V7 positive patients do demonstrate moderate response to these second-line endocrine therapies. Methods: Peripheral blood samples from patients with CRPC (n = 30) starting a new line of systemic therapy were subjected to comprehensive profiling of AR. AR splice variant (ARV) profiling for eight isoforms was performed by targeted RNA-Seq on CellSearch-enriched circulating tumour cells. Low-pass whole-genome and targeted sequencing of the entire AR gene in plasma-derived circulating cell-free DNA allowed the assessment of copy number status and structural rearrangements, respectively. ARV expression, structural variation, copy number alterations and ligand-binding domain mutations were combined and correlated to clinicopathologic parameters. Results: Twenty-five out of 30 patients (83%) demonstrated an aberration in AR. Twenty out of 30 patients (66.7%) demonstrated AR amplifications. Interestingly, 15/30 patients had intra-AR structural variants, of whom 14 expressed ARVs. In the context of endocrine treatment, 15/26 (57.7%) patients were ARV-positive with 13/15 patients having less than 6 months benefit from their therapy (Fisher’s exact test, p = 0.0115). ARV expression was heterogeneous with 10/15 ARV-positive patients expressing several ARV. Notably, AR-V7 was most frequently detected, however AR-V3 was 3.5x more abundant (Wilcox signed rank, p = 0.0029). In 17 patients, a baseline AR profile was available and demonstrated how having any ARV was associated with progression-free survival (HR: 4.53, 95%CI: 1.424–14.41; p = 0.0105). In the poor response group, 6/17 (35.2%) were AR-V7 negative, of whom 4 carried other AR aberrations. Conclusions: Comprehensive AR profiling on liquid biopsies is feasible and provides new insights into the mechanisms driving endocrine resistance. Clinical validation, by means of a non-interventional, prospective and multicentric study, is essential and currently ongoing.
The feasibility of using liquid biopsies as a complementary assay for copy number aberration profiling in routinely collected paediatric cancer patient samples
