Abstract
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.