Genomic alterations in neuroendocrine prostate cancer: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

BACKGROUND: Neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is a lethal subtype of prostate cancer. We performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis to evaluate the prevalence of genomic alterations in NEPC and better understand its molecular features to potentially inform precision medicine. METHODS: EMBASE, PubMed, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases were searched for eligible studies until March 2022. Study qualities were assessed using the Q‐genie tool. The prevalence of gene mutations and copy number alterations (CNAs) were extracted, and meta‐analysis was performed using R Studio with meta package. RESULTS: A total of 14 studies with 449 NEPC patients were included in this meta‐analysis. The most frequently mutated gene in NEPC was TP53 (49.8%), and the prevalence of deleterious mutations in ATM/BRCA was 16.8%. Common CNAs in NEPC included RB1 loss (58.3%), TP53 loss (42.8%), PTEN loss (37.0%), AURKA amplification (28.2%), and MYCN amplification (22.9%). RB1/TP53 alterations and concurrent RB1 and TP53 alterations were remarkably common in NEPC, with a prevalence of 83.8% and 43.9%, respectively. Comparative analyses indicated that the prevalence of (concurrent) RB1/TP53 alterations was significantly higher in de novo NEPC than in treatment‐emergent NEPC (t‐NEPC). CONCLUSIONS: This study presents the comprehensive prevalence of common genomic alterations and potentially actionable targets in NEPC and reveals the genomic differences between de novo NEPC and t‐NEPC. Our findings highlight the importance of genomic testing in patients for precision medicine and provide insights into future studies exploring different NEPC subtypes.