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Review
. 2021 Sep 24;13(19):4771.
doi: 10.3390/cancers13194771.

Molecular Characterization of Prostate Cancers in the Precision Medicine Era

Emilio Francesco Giunta  1 , Laura Annaratone  2   3 , Enrico Bollito  4 , Francesco Porpiglia  5 , Matteo Cereda  6   7 , Giuseppe Luigi Banna  8 , Alessandra Mosca  9 , Caterina Marchiò  2   3 , Pasquale Rescigno  10
Affiliations
Review

Molecular Characterization of Prostate Cancers in the Precision Medicine Era

Emilio Francesco Giunta et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) therapy has been recently revolutionized by the approval of new therapeutic agents in the metastatic setting. However, the optimal therapeutic strategy in such patients should be individualized in the light of prognostic and predictive molecular factors, which have been recently studied: androgen receptor (AR) alterations, PTEN-PI3K-AKT pathway deregulation, homologous recombination deficiency (HRD), mismatch repair deficiency (MMRd), and tumor microenvironment (TME) modifications. In this review, we highlighted the clinical impact of prognostic and predictive molecular factors in PCa patients' outcomes, identifying biologically distinct subtypes. We further analyzed the relevant methods to detect these factors, both on tissue, i.e., immunohistochemistry (IHC) and molecular tests, and blood, i.e., analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Moreover, we discussed the main pros and cons of such techniques, depicting their present and future roles in PCa management, throughout the precision medicine era.

Keywords: PARP inhibitor; immunotherapy; liquid biopsy; molecular oncology; precision medicine; predictive biomarkers; prognostic biomarkers; prostate cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

P.R. served on the advisory board for MSD and Astra Zeneca Italy. C.M. received personal consultancy fees from Roche, Bayer, AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Predictive and prognostic biomarkers in prostate cancer. DC, dendritic cell; CAF, cancer associate fibroblast; MDSC, myeloid-derived suppressor cells; RTK, receptor tyrosine kinase; DSB, double strand break; HRD, homologous recombination deficiency; MSI, microsatellite instability.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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