Re: Tracking the clonal origin of lethal prostate cancer

摘要

Prostate cancer (PCa) is known for its multifaceted nature, usually developing and progressing as a multifocal and multi-clonal disease. In the context of overdiagnosis and overtreat-ment, correct characterization of PCa aggressiveness at diagnosis is crucial for therapeutic management.To this end, Haffner and colleagues mapped the clonal origin of a multimetastatic castration-resistant adenocarci-noma in a single patient treated with radical prostatectomy and multiple salvage therapies. Using whole-genome sequencing, they analyzed tissues from three anatomically different metastatic locations (lung, liver, and perigastric lymph node) collected immediately after the death of the patient. To trace the origin of the metastases, they compared their findings with those obtained from analysis of cancer foci in the prostatectomy specimen.