Figure 2. RET kinase along with other neuroendocrine transcripts are upregulated in NEPC relative to AdCa patient samples.

A. Microarray data from the University of Washington rapid autopsy data of metastatic prostate cancer biopsies (32) were clustered based on gene expression of RET, neuroendocrine markers: CHGA and ASCL1, as well as androgen regulated genes: KLK3, AR, and NKX3–1. Upregulation of expression is represented by yellow, while downregulated genes are represented by blue. Patient samples were classified by AR and NE markers as AR+NE- (green, n=134), AR-NE- (blue, n=10), AR-NE+ (red, n=20), and AR+NE+ (purple, n=7). B. Pearson correlation matrix of gene expression from Figure 2A showing a correlation of RET gene expression with neuroendocrine markers and negative correlation with AR responsive markers. C. Box and whisker plot of average transcript measurements of CHGA, SYP, or RET in Adenocarcinoma (AR+NE-) versus the NEPC (AR-NE+) patients. The data is represented in Tukey plots and expression values were analyzed by Student’s t test. D. Agilent oligo array expression analysis of four neuroendocrine AR-negative LuCaP patient derived xenografts (PDX) and 20 LuCaP adenocarcinoma PDX published in Zhang et al. 2015. Clinical Cancer Research. (33) were clustered as in Figure 2A. E. Pearson correlation matrix of expression data represented in Figure 2D. F. Box and whisker plot shows an upregulation in CHGA, SYP, and RET kinase in NEPC versus AdCa PDX samples. Data is represented as in Figure 2C.