SNP arrays of tumors derived from human prostate epithelial cells transformed with the oncogenes N-Myc and myrAKT1

MYCN amplification and overexpression are common in neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). However, the impact of aberrant N-Myc expression in prostate tumorigenesis and the cellular origin of NEPC have not been established. We define N-Myc and activated AKT1 as oncogenic components sufficient to transform human prostate epithelial cells to prostate adenocarcinoma and NEPC including the small cell prostate carcinoma (SCPC) variant with phenotypic and molecular features of aggressive, late-stage human disease. We directly show that prostate adenocarcinoma and NEPC can both arise from a common epithelial clone. Further, N-Myc is required for tumor maintenance and destabilization of N-Myc through Aurora A kinase inhibition reduces tumor burden. Our findings establish N-Myc as a driver of NEPC and a target for therapeutic intervention. SNP array data of experimentally generated human NEPC tumors and a cell line. Copy number analysis of Affymetrix CytoScan HD arrays was performed according to manufacturer's instructions on DNA extracted from three fresh-frozen N-myc/myrAKT1 prostate tumors and the N-Myc/myrAKT1 prostate cell line LASCPC-01.