TABLE 1.

The main characteristics of the studies included in the meta‐analysis

Study	No. of patient a	Age, median (range)	De novo NEPC	Treatment‐emerging NEPC	Pure NEPC	Mixed NEPC	Samples	Primary tumour	Metastasis	DNA source	Methodology
Beltran 2011	7 37	NR	NR	NR	4 NR	3 NR	7 37	1 NR	5 NR	Frozen tissue FFPE tissue	SNP Array FISH
Tan 2014	13	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	13	13	0	FFPE tissue	Target NGS Sanger sequencing
Beltran 2016	30	69 (55–87)	NR	NR	12	18	44	19	25	Frozen/FFPE tissue	WES
Aggarwal 2018	12	69 (55–90)#	0	12	8	4	12	0	12	FFPE tissue	Target NGS
Chedgy 2018	17	65 (43–78)	17	0	10	7	22	22	0	FFPE tissue	Target NGS/WES
Beltran 2019 b	12	67 (45–87)#	NR	NR	12	0	12	0	12	Frozen tissue	WES
Abida 2019 c	22	67 (49–87)	NR	NR	10	12	22	1	21	Frozen tissue	WES
Conteduca 2019 d	47	67 (57–75)	24	23	21	26	NR	NR	NR	Frozen/FFPE tissue	WES
Beltran 2020	17	68 (54–90)	NR	NR	NR	NR	17	NR	NR	cfDNA	WES
Conteduca 2021‐CTC	7	70 (59–79)	2	5	2	5	7	NR	NR	CTC	NGS (not specified)
Jardim 2021	218	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	Target NGS
Xiao 2021	5	65 (53–75)	NR	NR	5	0	5	3	2	FFPE tissue	NGS (not specified)
Zhu 2022	43	66 (57–78)	0	43	NR	NR	43	5	38	Frozen/FFPE tissue	Target NGS/WES
Ida 2022	9	77 (60–84)	8	1	2	7	9	9	0	FFPE tissue	Target NGS

Abbreviations: cfDNA, cell free DNA; CTC, circulating tumour cell; FFPE, formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded; NEPC, neuroendocrine prostate cancer; NGS, next‐generation sequencing; NR, not reported; WES, whole‐exome sequencing.

^a For studies involving both NEPC and prostate adenocarcinoma, only data of NEPC patients with sequencing data are included.

^b Excluding patients in Beltran 2016.

^c Excluding patients in Beltran 2016 and Beltran 2019.

^d Including patients in Beltran 2016, Beltran 2019, and Abida 2019.