TMPRSS2:ETS Fusions and Clinicopathologic Characteristics of Prostate Cancer Patients from Eastern China

TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusions in prostate cancer have a dominant prevalence of approximately 50.0%, butinfomration is limited on differences among ethnic and geographical groups. Some studies focusing on Japaneseand Korean patients reported a lower incidence. Investigations concerning Chinese revealed controversialresults. We evaluated TMPRSS2:ERG, TMPRSS2:ETV1 and TMPRSS2:ETV4 fusions in more than 100 EasternChinese prostate cancer patients. Paraffin blocks of needle biopsy and radical prostatectomy were collectedfrom 91 and 18 patients respectively. All patients’ clinicopathologic factors were gathered. TMPRSS2:ERG,TMPRSS2:ETV1 and TMPRSS2:ETV4 fusions were tested by multi-probe fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH) assay. TMPRSS2:ERG fusions was present in 14.3% biopsy specimens and 11.1% radical prostatectomypatients. Neither TMPRSS2:ETV1 nor TMPRSS2:ETV4 fusion was found in any case. Altogether, 13 (86.7%)TMPRSS2:ERG fusion positive cases possessed deletion pattern and 7 (46.6%) and insertion pattern. Some 5cases had both deletion and insertion patterns. While 38.5% (5/13) patients with deletion pattern had distantmetastasis, except for one metastatic case harboring both deletion and insertion, there were no patients withinsertion pattern accompanied with metastasis. There were no differences between fusion positive and negativecases in the distribution of age, PSA, Gleason score and TNM stage. Eastern Chinese prostate cancer patients havea significantly low incidence of TMPRSS2:ERG fusion. They also lack TMPRSS2:ETV1 and TMPRSS2:ETV4fusion. There are more deletion pattern than insertion pattern in TMPRSS2:ERG positive cases. Fusion positiveand negative patients have no clinicopathologic factor differences.