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Development and prevalence of castration-resistant prostate cancer subtypes

Vellky JE, Ricke WA

Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.), 2020

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) occurs when prostate cancer (CaP) progresses under therapy-induced castrate conditions. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this acquired resistance, many of which are driven by androgen receptor (AR). Recent findings, however, sub-classified CRPC by downregulation/absence of AR in certain subtypes that consequently do not respond to anti-androgen therapies. To highlight the significance of CRPC sub-classification, we reviewed the development and treatment of CRPC, AR downregulation in CRPC, and summarized recent reports on the prevalence of CRPC subtypes.

METHODS: Using a medline-based literature search, we reviewed mechanisms of CRPC development, current treatment schemes, and assessed the prevalence of AR low/negative subtypes of CRPC. Additionally, we performed immunohistochemical staining on human CRPC specimens to quantify AR expression across CRPC subtypes.

RESULTS: In the majority of cases, CRPC continues to rely on AR signaling, which can be augmented in castrate-conditions through a variety of mechanisms. However, recently low/negative AR expression patterns were identified in a significant proportion of patient samples from a multitude of independent studies. In these AR low/negative cases, we postulated that AR protein may be downregulated by (1) promoter methylation, (2) transcriptional regulation, (3) post-transcriptional regulation by microRNA or RNA-binding-proteins, or (4)…

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