[Neuroendocrine prostate cancer: Natural history, molecular features, therapeutic management and future directions]

Neuroendocrine prostate cancer is a rare malignancy with a an adverse prognostic. Histologically, It can be pure (small cells or large cells neuroendocrine carcinoma) or mixed with a adenocarcinoma component. Rarely diagnosed de novo, neuroendocrine prostate cancer is generally associated with advanced stage disease resistant to castration. As such, this histological subtype could represent an aggressive evolution of prostatic adenocarcinoma, through the epithelio-neuroendocrine transdifferentiation mechanism (phenomenon of lineage plasticity). Nonetheless, neuroendocrine prostate cancer is a heterogeneous malignancy with multiple histopathological variants showing distinct clinical features. The broad variety of molecular analyses could help to understand the ontogeny of this histological subtype and its signaling pathways. This may also allow identifying diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as potential molecular targets. However, treatment options are currently limited and consist only in platinium-based chemotherapy for advanced stage disease.

Bulletin du cancer. 2017 Jun 30 [Epub ahead of print]

Luca Campedel, Myriam Kossaï, Paul Blanc-Durand, Morgan Rouprêt, Thomas Seisen, Eva Compérat, Jean-Philippe Spano, Gabriel Malouf

AP-HP, université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (Paris-VI), groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, institut universitaire de cancérologie, département d'oncologie médicale, 47-83, boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75651 Paris cedex 13, France. Electronic address: ., Université Paris-Sud, Gustave-Roussy, département de pathologie, 114, rue Édouard-Vaillant, 94800 Villejuif, France., Centre hospitalo-universitaire Vaudois, service de médecine nucléaire et d'imagerie moléculaire, 21, rue de Brugnon, 1011 Lausanne, Suisse., AP-HP, université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (Paris-VI), groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, institut universitaire de cancérologie, département d'urologie, 47-83, boulevard de l'hôpital, 75651 Paris cedex 13, France., AP-HP, CHU de Tenon, université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (Paris-VI), département d'anatomie et cytologie pathologique, 4, rue de la Chine, 75020 Paris, France., AP-HP, université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (Paris-VI), groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, institut universitaire de cancérologie, département d'oncologie médicale, 47-83, boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75651 Paris cedex 13, France.