Repertoire and clinical hierarchy of AR locus alterations in castration-resistant prostate cancer

Somatic alterations to the androgen receptor (AR) gene are pivotal drivers of treatment resistance in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), but their prevalence, clinical impact, and etiology remain incompletely understood.

We assembled a meta-cohort of 3048 plasma cell-free DNA and matched leukocyte DNA samples from 1751 mCRPC patients, accrued from eight clinical trials and a regional biobank. Samples were sequenced with successive generations of a custom targeted hybridization capture panel with extensive coverage of the AR locus and 71 prostate cancer genes, enabling comprehensive characterization of AR genotypes including enhancer and gene copy number amplification, and mutations or structural rearrangements.

Somatic AR alterations, detected in 84% of mCRPC, were shaped by underlying genomics, including TP53 and DNA repair defects. Wnt-mutant tumors showed unique AR amplification structures characterized by preferential incorporation of an alternative downstream enhancer and low copy number. AR mutations were present in 19.7% of mCRPC, often subclonal, and enriched in tumors with AR enhancer-only gain. We establish a functional hierarchy of AR genotypes based on treatment responses and identify a specific class of AR rearrangements truncating the ligand-binding domain within intron 4 or exon 4 (ALTR4) that are under robust positive selection and strongly impact AR pathway inhibitor outcomes, distinct from other rearrangements arising as byproducts of AR amplification. We provide evidence that a subset of AR amplifications arise through breakage-fusion-bridge cycles with associated Xq loss. Some 16% of mCRPC lacked detectable AR alterations and had reduced frequency of ETS gene fusions, with many demonstrating robust responses to AR pathway inhibitors.

This study provides the most comprehensive resource to date characterizing somatic alterations at the AR locus. Our clinicogenomic analysis establishes the repertoire and clinical relevance of AR genotypes in mCRPC, informing efforts to target renewed AR dependency.