African-American (AFR) men with prostate cancer have distinct genomic alterations from European-American (EUR) men, according to a study published online July 10 inย Clinical Cancer Research.
Yusuke Koga, from the Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues compared the frequencies of somatic alterations in prostate cancer obtained from four datasets comprising 250 AFR and 611 EUR men and a targeted sequencing dataset from a commercial platform of 436 AFR men and 3,018 EUR men. The authors sought to examine genomic alterations associated with race.
The researchers found that in tumors from AFR men, mutations inย ZFHX3ย and focal deletions inย ETV3ย were more frequent. There was an association forย TP53ย mutations with increasing Gleason score. Tumors from AFR men with metastatic prostate cancer more often hadย MYCย amplifications, while tumors from AFR less frequently had deletions inย PTENย and rearrangements inย TMPRSS2-ERG. Primary prostate cancer from AFR men more often hadย KMT2Dย truncations andย CCND1ย amplifications. There was no significant difference noted between the two groups in genomic features that could impact clinical decision-making, including tumor burden, microsatellite instability status, and genomic alterations in select DNA repair genes,ย CDK12, and inย AR.
“The genomic differences seen in genes such asย MYC,ย ZFHX3,ย PTEN, andย TMPRSS2-ERGย suggest that different pathways of carcinogenesis may be active in AFR men, which could lead to further disparities if targeted therapies for some of these alterations become available,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
Sources: https://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2020/07/10/1078-0432.CCR-19-4112
