Circulating tumor cell heterogeneity in neuroendocrine prostate cancer by single cell copy number analysis

oleh: Vincenza Conteduca, Sheng-Yu Ku, Luisa Fernandez, Angel Dago-Rodriquez, Jerry Lee, Adam Jendrisak, Megan Slade, Cole Gilbertson, Jyothi Manohar, Michael Sigouros, Yipeng Wang, Ryan Dittamore, Rick Wenstrup, Juan Miguel Mosquera, Joseph D. Schonhoft, Himisha Beltran

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Nature Portfolio 2021-08-01

Deskripsi

Abstract Neuroendocrine prostate cancer is an aggressive variant of prostate cancer that may arise de novo or develop from pre-existing prostate adenocarcinoma as a mechanism of treatment resistance. The combined loss of tumor suppressors RB1, TP53, and PTEN are frequent in NEPC but also present in a subset of prostate adenocarcinomas. Most clinical and preclinical studies support a trans-differentiation process, whereby NEPC arises clonally from a prostate adenocarcinoma precursor during the course of treatment resistance. Here we highlight a case of NEPC with significant intra-patient heterogeneity observed across metastases. We further demonstrate how single-cell genomic analysis of circulating tumor cells combined with a phenotypic evaluation of cellular diversity can be considered as a window into tumor heterogeneity in patients with advanced prostate cancer.