Clinicogenomic characterization of prostate cancer liver metastases

The site of prostate cancer metastasis is an important predictor of oncologic outcomes, however, the clinicogenomic characteristics associated with the site are not well-defined. Herein, we characterize the genomic alterations associated with the metastatic site of prostate cancer.

We analyzed clinical and genomic data from prostate cancer patients with metastatic disease and known metastatic sites from publicly available targeted sequencing data.

Prostate cancer metastasis to the liver versus other sites of metastasis conferred a high hazard for death in patients with metastatic prostate cancer (HR: 3.96, 95% CI: 2.4-6.5, p < 0.0001). Genomic analysis of metastatic tissues of prostate cancer-specific genes demonstrated that liver metastases were more enriched with MYC amplification (29.5% vs. 9.8%, FDR = 0.001), PTEN deletion (42% vs. 20.8%, FDR = 0.005), and PIK3CB amplification (8.2% vs. 0.9, FDR = 0.005) compared to other sites. No point mutations were significantly associated with liver metastasis compared to other metastatic sites.

Liver metastases in prostate cancer are associated with poor survival and aggressive genomic features, including MYC-amplification, PTEN-deletion, and PIK3CB-amplification. These findings could have prognostic, treatment, and trial implications.