Lineage analysis of basal epithelial cells reveals their unexpected plasticity and supports a cell of origin model for prostate cancer heterogeneity

A key issue in cancer biology is whether oncogenic transformation of different cell types of origin within an adult tissue gives rise to distinct tumor subtypes that differ in their prognosis and/or treatment response. We now show that initiation of prostate tumors in basal or luminal epithelial cells in mouse models results in tumors with distinct molecular signatures that are predictive of human patient outcomes. Furthermore, our analysis of untransformed basal cells reveals an unexpected assay-dependence of their stem cell properties in sphere formation and transplantation assays versus genetic lineage-tracing during prostate regeneration and adult tissue homeostasis. Although oncogenic transformation of basal cells gives rise to tumors with luminal phenotypes, cross-species bioinformatic analyses indicate that luminal origin tumors are more aggressive than basal origin tumors, and identify a molecular signature associated with patient outcome. Our results reveal the inherent plasticity of basal cells, and support a model in which different cells of origin generate distinct molecular subtypes of prostate cancer.