Whole-transcript and exon-level expression data for human primary and metastatic prostate cancer samples and control normal adjacent benign prostate

Current knowledge of prostate cancer genomes is largely based on relatively small patient cohorts using single modality analysis platforms. Here we report concordant assessment of DNA copy number, mRNA and microRNA expression and focused exon resequencing in prostate tumors from 218 patients with primary or metastatic prostate cancer with a median of 5 years clinical follow-up, now made available as a public resource. Mutations in known, commonly mutated oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes such as PIK3CA, KRAS, BRAF and TP53 are present but generally rare. However, integrative analysis of mutations with copy number alterations (CNAs) and expression changes reveal alterations in the PI3K, RAS/RAF and androgen receptor (AR) pathways in nearly all metastatic samples and in a higher frequency of primary samples than previously suspected based on single-gene studies. Other new findings include evidence that the nuclear receptor coactivator NCOA2 functions as a driver oncogene in ~20 percent of primaries. Tumors with the androgen-driven TMPRSS2-ERG fusion were significantly associated with a small, previously unrecognized, prostate-specific 3p14 deletion that, through mRNA expression and resequencing analysis, implicates FOXP1, RYBP and SHQ1 as candidate cooperative tumor suppressors. Comparison of transcriptome and DNA copy number data from primary tumors for prognostic impact revealed that CNAs robustly define clusters of low- and high-risk disease beyond that achieved by Gleason score. In sum, this integrative genomic analysis of a substantial cohort of tumors clarifies the role of several known cancer pathways in prostate cancer, implicates several new ones, reveals a previously unappreciated role for CNAs in prognosis and provides a blueprint for clinical development of pathway inhibitors.