Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The term aggressive variant prostate cancer AVPCa refers to androgen receptor AR -independent anaplastic forms of prostate cancer PCa , clinically characterized by a rapidly progressive disease course.
This involves hormone refractoriness and metastasis in visceral sites. Morphologically, AVPCa is made up of solid sheets of cells devoid of pleomorphism, with round and enlarged nuclei with prominent nucleoli and slightly basophilic cytoplasm. The cells do not show the typical architectural features of prostatic adenocarcinoma and mimic the undifferentiated carcinoma of other organs and locations.
The final diagnosis is based on the immunohistochemical expression of markers usually seen in the prostate, such as prostate-specific membrane antigen PSMA. This letter subset represents an intermediate part of the spectrum of NE tumors which ranges from small cell to large cell carcinoma. All such tumors can develop following potent androgen receptor pathway inhibition. The identification of these subtypes has direct clinical relevance with regard to the potential benefit of platinum-based chemotherapy, poly ADP-ribose polymerase inhibitors and likely further therapies.
Keywords: prostate cancer, aggressive variant, anaplastic prostate cancer, neuroendocrine prostate cancer, aggressive variant prostate cancer, anaplastic prostate cancer. Men with CRPCa may evolve an androgen receptor AR -independent phenotype, characterized by a rapidly progressive disease course [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. This clinically aggressive form is called aggressive variant prostate cancer AVPCa [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].
It is characterized by hormone refractoriness and secondary deposits in different organs [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. It often shows a low or absent AR protein expression and is often associated with low serum levels of prostate-specific antigen PSA [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. In some cases, this aggressive variant expresses markers of neuroendocrine NE differentiation [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. It is outside the scope of this contribution to deal with metastatic hormone-sensitive PCa, a tumor that can show clinical, morphological and molecular features of aggressiveness.
