A patient-driven clinicogenomic partnership for metastatic prostate cancer

Molecular profiling studies have enabled discoveries for metastatic prostate cancer (MPC) but have predom-inantly occurred in academic medical institutions and involved non-representative patient populations. We established the Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project (MPCproject, mpcproject.org), a patient-partnered initia-tive to involve patients with MPC living anywhere in the US and Canada in molecular research. Here, we pre-sent results from our partnership with the first 706 MPCproject participants. While 41% of patient partners live in rural, physician-shortage, or medically underserved areas, the MPCproject has not yet achieved racial diversity, a disparity that demands new initiatives detailed herein. Among molecular data from 333 patient partners (572 samples), exome sequencing of 63 tumor and 19 cell-free DNA (cfDNA) samples recapitulated known findings in MPC, while inexpensive ultra-low-coverage sequencing of 318 cfDNA samples revealed clinically relevant AR amplifications. This study illustrates the power of a growing, longitudinal partnership with patients to generate a more representative understanding of MPC.