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Intrinsic Molecular Subtypes of Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

Feng, Eric ; Rydzewski, Nicholas R ; Zhang, Meng ; Lundberg, Arian ; Bootsma, Matthew ; Helzer, Kyle T ; Lang, Joshua M ; Aggarwal, Rahul ; Small, Eric J and Quigley, David A , et al. (2022) In Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research 28(24). p.5396-5404
Abstract

PURPOSE: Although numerous biology-driven subtypes have been described previously in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), unsupervised molecular subtyping based on gene expression has been less studied, especially using large cohorts. Thus, we sought to identify the intrinsic molecular subtypes of mCRPC and assess molecular and clinical correlates in the largest combined cohort of mCRPC samples with gene expression data available to date.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We combined and batch-effect corrected gene expression data from four mCRPC cohorts from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (N = 157), a small-cell neuroendocrine (NE) prostate cancer (SCNC)-enriched cohort from Weill Cornell Medicine (N = 49), and... (More)

PURPOSE: Although numerous biology-driven subtypes have been described previously in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), unsupervised molecular subtyping based on gene expression has been less studied, especially using large cohorts. Thus, we sought to identify the intrinsic molecular subtypes of mCRPC and assess molecular and clinical correlates in the largest combined cohort of mCRPC samples with gene expression data available to date.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We combined and batch-effect corrected gene expression data from four mCRPC cohorts from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (N = 157), a small-cell neuroendocrine (NE) prostate cancer (SCNC)-enriched cohort from Weill Cornell Medicine (N = 49), and cohorts from the Stand Up 2 Cancer/Prostate Cancer Foundation East Coast Dream Team (N = 266) and the West Coast Dream Team (N = 162).

RESULTS: Hierarchical clustering of RNA-sequencing data from these 634 mCRPC samples identified two distinct adenocarcinoma subtypes, one of which (adeno-immune) was characterized by higher gene expression of immune pathways, higher CIBERSORTx immune scores, diminished ASI benefit, and non-lymph node metastasis tropism compared with an adeno-classic subtype. We also identified two distinct subtypes with enrichment for an NE phenotype, including an NE-liver subgroup characterized by liver metastasis tropism, PTEN loss, and APC and SPOP mutations compared with an NE-classic subgroup.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results emphasize the heterogeneity of mCRPC beyond currently accepted molecular phenotypes, and suggest that future studies should consider incorporating transcriptome-wide profiling to better understand how these differences impact treatment responses and outcomes.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Humans, Male, Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant/drug therapy, Gene Expression Profiling, Adenocarcinoma, Nuclear Proteins/genetics, Repressor Proteins/genetics
in
Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research
volume
28
issue
24
pages
5396 - 5404
publisher
American Association for Cancer Research Inc.
external identifiers
  • pmid:36260524
ISSN
1078-0432
DOI
10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-2567
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
©2022 American Association for Cancer Research.
id
4c0dfa16-a170-43b9-bf6c-69d7319e698f
date added to LUP
2026-02-20 13:42:54
date last changed
2026-02-20 13:42:54
@article{4c0dfa16-a170-43b9-bf6c-69d7319e698f,
  abstract     = {{<p>PURPOSE: Although numerous biology-driven subtypes have been described previously in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), unsupervised molecular subtyping based on gene expression has been less studied, especially using large cohorts. Thus, we sought to identify the intrinsic molecular subtypes of mCRPC and assess molecular and clinical correlates in the largest combined cohort of mCRPC samples with gene expression data available to date.</p><p>EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We combined and batch-effect corrected gene expression data from four mCRPC cohorts from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (N = 157), a small-cell neuroendocrine (NE) prostate cancer (SCNC)-enriched cohort from Weill Cornell Medicine (N = 49), and cohorts from the Stand Up 2 Cancer/Prostate Cancer Foundation East Coast Dream Team (N = 266) and the West Coast Dream Team (N = 162).</p><p>RESULTS: Hierarchical clustering of RNA-sequencing data from these 634 mCRPC samples identified two distinct adenocarcinoma subtypes, one of which (adeno-immune) was characterized by higher gene expression of immune pathways, higher CIBERSORTx immune scores, diminished ASI benefit, and non-lymph node metastasis tropism compared with an adeno-classic subtype. We also identified two distinct subtypes with enrichment for an NE phenotype, including an NE-liver subgroup characterized by liver metastasis tropism, PTEN loss, and APC and SPOP mutations compared with an NE-classic subgroup.</p><p>CONCLUSIONS: Our results emphasize the heterogeneity of mCRPC beyond currently accepted molecular phenotypes, and suggest that future studies should consider incorporating transcriptome-wide profiling to better understand how these differences impact treatment responses and outcomes.</p>}},
  author       = {{Feng, Eric and Rydzewski, Nicholas R and Zhang, Meng and Lundberg, Arian and Bootsma, Matthew and Helzer, Kyle T and Lang, Joshua M and Aggarwal, Rahul and Small, Eric J and Quigley, David A and Sjöström, Martin and Zhao, Shuang G}},
  issn         = {{1078-0432}},
  keywords     = {{Humans; Male; Prostatic Neoplasms, Castration-Resistant/drug therapy; Gene Expression Profiling; Adenocarcinoma; Nuclear Proteins/genetics; Repressor Proteins/genetics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  number       = {{24}},
  pages        = {{5396--5404}},
  publisher    = {{American Association for Cancer Research Inc.}},
  series       = {{Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research}},
  title        = {{Intrinsic Molecular Subtypes of Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-2567}},
  doi          = {{10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-2567}},
  volume       = {{28}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}