Purpose
The CYP17A1 inhibitor abiraterone markedly reduces androgen precursors and is thereby effective in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). However, abiraterone increases progesterone, which can activate certain mutant androgen receptors (ARs) identified previously in flutamide-resistant tumors. Therefore, we sought to determine if CYP17A1 inhibitor treatment selects for progesterone activated mutant ARs.
Experimental Design
AR was examined by targeted sequencing in metastatic tumor biopsies from 18 CRPC patients who were progressing on a CYP17A1 inhibitor (17 on abiraterone, 1 on ketoconazole), alone or in combination with dutasteride, and by whole exome sequencing in residual tumor in one patient treated with neoadjuvant leuprolide plus abiraterone.
Results
The progesterone-activated T878A mutant AR was present at high allele frequency in 3 of the 18 CRPC cases. It was also present in one focus of resistant tumor in the neoadjuvant treated patient, but not in a second clonally related resistant focus which instead had lost one copy of PTEN and both copies of CHD1. The T878A mutation appeared to be less common in the subset of CRPC patients treated with abiraterone plus dutasteride, and transfection studies showed that dutasteride was a more potent direct antagonist of the T878A versus the wildtype AR.
Conclusions
These findings indicate that selection for tumor cells expressing progesterone-activated mutant ARs is a mechanism of resistance to CYP17A1 inhibition.
Embedding an oncologist in the ED of an academic medical center did not significantly reduce hospital admissions. Novel approaches are needed to strengthen outpatient acute care for patients with cancer.
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