TY - JOUR
T1 - Neuroendocrine and aggressive-variant prostate cancer
AU - Spetsieris, Nicholas
AU - Boukovala, Myrto
AU - Patsakis, Georgios
AU - Alafis, Ioannis
AU - Efstathiou, Eleni
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - In prostate cancer, neuroendocrine (NE) differentiation may rarely present de novo or more frequently arises following hormonal therapy in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Its distinct phenotype is characterized by an aggressive clinical course, lack of responsiveness to hormonal therapies and poor prognosis. Importantly, a subset of CRPC patients exhibits an aggressive-variant disease with very similar clinical and molecular characteristics to small-cell prostate cancer (SCPC) even though tumors do not have NE differentiation. This aggressive-variant prostate cancer (AVPC) also shares the sensitivity of SCPC to platinum-based chemotherapy albeit with short-lived clinical benefit. As optimal treatment strategies for AVPC remain elusive, currently ongoing research efforts aim to enhance our understanding of the biology of this disease entity and improve treatment outcomes for our patients. This review is an overview of our current knowledge on prostate cancer with NE differentiation and AVPC, with a focus on their clinical characteristics and management, including available as well as experimental therapeutic strategies.
AB - In prostate cancer, neuroendocrine (NE) differentiation may rarely present de novo or more frequently arises following hormonal therapy in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Its distinct phenotype is characterized by an aggressive clinical course, lack of responsiveness to hormonal therapies and poor prognosis. Importantly, a subset of CRPC patients exhibits an aggressive-variant disease with very similar clinical and molecular characteristics to small-cell prostate cancer (SCPC) even though tumors do not have NE differentiation. This aggressive-variant prostate cancer (AVPC) also shares the sensitivity of SCPC to platinum-based chemotherapy albeit with short-lived clinical benefit. As optimal treatment strategies for AVPC remain elusive, currently ongoing research efforts aim to enhance our understanding of the biology of this disease entity and improve treatment outcomes for our patients. This review is an overview of our current knowledge on prostate cancer with NE differentiation and AVPC, with a focus on their clinical characteristics and management, including available as well as experimental therapeutic strategies.
KW - Aggressive variant prostate cancer
KW - Anaplastic prostate cancer
KW - Castration resistant prostate cancer
KW - Neuroendocrine prostate cancer
KW - Small-cell prostate cancer
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U2 - 10.3390/cancers12123792
DO - 10.3390/cancers12123792
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33339136
AN - SCOPUS:85098237192
SN - 2072-6694
VL - 12
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Cancers
JF - Cancers
IS - 12
M1 - 3792
ER -