Prostate Cancer Study Presented by Genentech – AACR 2019

Analyses that Fios performed on behalf of Genentech were featured in their poster “Association of tumor fusion burden with immune presence and androgen sensitivity in prostate cancer”. The poster was exhibited at AACR 2019.

Genentech is a biotechnology company based in California, USA. Since 2009, they have been a member of the Roche Group. They discover, develop and manufacture medicines to treat patients with a variety of medical conditions.

Poster Information

Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in men and has a lower tumour mutation burden than other types of tumour. Many gene fusions have been characterised in prostate cancer which is linked to aggressive disease progression. The poster investigated the effects of fusion burden on the expression of key molecular and immune effectors in prostate cancer.

187 samples from different stages of prostate cancer were analysed. RNA-Seq was used and samples were assessed for both mutation and fusion burdens. The immune microenvironment was characterised and assessed through immunohistochemistry. Molecular and immune gene signatures that were derived from the expression data were clustered according to disease stage, tumour mutation or fusion burden, and androgen sensitivity.

In all 187 samples, tumour mutation burden was low while fusion burden had a much wider range per sample. Fusion and tumour mutation burdens were found to be inversely correlated, with fusion burden was not associated with disease stage. High fusion burden correlated with high cell cycle progression and AR signalling, as well as a high metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer score (which represents the most aggressive disease).

Overall, it is suggested that in prostate cancer, a high fusion burden may be associated more closely with immunogenicity and disease prognosis than tumour mutation burden. High fusion burden tumours could therefore be candidates for immunotherapy.

Fios’ Contribution

Five members of Fios are authors on the poster; Dan Halligan (Head of Research and Development), Adrian Carr (Bioinformatics Team Leader), Max Bylesjo (Technical Director), Julian Augley (Bioinformatician) and Simone Daminelli (Senior Bioinformatician).

Interested in finding out more about what we do? Visit our services page now.

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting was held in Georgia on 29 March – 3 April 2019. For more information on the event, visit the AACR website. The AACR abstract for this paper can be found here.