Lu XiaoJun, Gao Wenwen, Zhang Yu, Wang Tao, Gao Hongliang, Chen Qing, Shi Xiaolei, Lian Bijun, Zhang Wenhui, Gao Xu, Li Jing
Department of Urology, Shanghai Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
Department of Oncology, Shidong Hospital, Affiliated to University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
Front Oncol. 2021 Sep 27;11:732071. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.732071. eCollection 2021.
Small cell carcinoma (SCC)/neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is a rare and highly aggressive subtype of prostate cancer associated with an AR(androgen receptor)-null phenotype and visceral metastases. This study presents a 44-year-old man originally diagnosed with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostatic adenocarcinoma. After 6-month androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) combined with docetaxel, the patient developed paraplegia. Laminectomy was performed, and a thoracic vertebral biopsy revealed neuroendocrine differentiation and mixed adenocarcinoma. The patient developed liver metastases and experienced stable disease for 4 months following etoposide combined with cisplatin and pembrolizumab. Seminal vesicle biopsy after chemotherapy revealed small-cell cancer. The prostate biopsy specimen also indicated pure SCC. We witnessed the dynamic evolution from pure adenocarcinoma to fully differentiated SCC, leading to obstruction and death. In addition, whole-exome sequencing was performed on both biopsy specimens of the thoracic vertebra at the beginning of castration resistance and that of seminal vesicle after multiple lines of treatment failure. Utilizing phylogenetic reconstruction, we observed that both samples shared a common ancestor clone harboring aberrations in the , , and genes. We also discovered that driver events in the private subclones of both samples, such as alterations in and , might have played a significant role in tumor progression or even neuroendocrine differentiation. Tumor biopsy and IHC assessment must be repeated at different stages of progression, because of intrapatient spatial and temporal heterogeneity of adenocarcinoma SCC/NEPC. Although, typical treatments including ADT, docetaxel, etoposide, cisplatin, and pembrolizumab provided temporary response, the patient still had a poor prognosis.
小细胞癌(SCC)/神经内分泌前列腺癌(NEPC)是前列腺癌中一种罕见且侵袭性很强的亚型,与雄激素受体(AR)缺失表型及内脏转移有关。本研究报告了一名44岁男性,最初被诊断为转移性激素敏感性前列腺腺癌。在接受6个月的雄激素剥夺治疗(ADT)联合多西他赛后,患者出现截瘫。进行了椎板切除术,胸椎活检显示神经内分泌分化及混合性腺癌。患者出现肝转移,在依托泊苷联合顺铂及帕博利珠单抗治疗后病情稳定了4个月。化疗后精囊活检显示为小细胞癌。前列腺活检标本也显示为纯SCC。我们见证了从纯腺癌到完全分化的SCC的动态演变过程,最终导致梗阻和死亡。此外,在去势抵抗开始时的胸椎活检标本以及多线治疗失败后的精囊活检标本上均进行了全外显子测序。利用系统发育重建,我们观察到两个样本共享一个共同的祖先克隆,该克隆在 、 和 基因中存在畸变。我们还发现,两个样本的私有亚克隆中的驱动事件,如 和 的改变,可能在肿瘤进展甚至神经内分泌分化中发挥了重要作用。由于腺癌向SCC/NEPC转变过程中患者体内存在空间和时间异质性,因此必须在疾病进展的不同阶段重复进行肿瘤活检和免疫组化评估。尽管包括ADT、多西他赛、依托泊苷、顺铂和帕博利珠单抗在内的典型治疗提供了暂时的缓解,但患者的预后仍然很差。