Characterizing the molecular features of ERG-positive tumors in primary and castration resistant prostate cancer

This study examined ERG expression in primary PCa and CRPC. We have identified altered levels of inflammatory mediators associated with ERG expression and a novel ERG-associated protein, DCLK1, which may play a role in primary PCa progression to metastatic CPRC. Custom Agilent 44K whole human genome expression oligonucleotide microarrays were used to profile 20 LuCaP PCa xenograft line, 11 radical prostatectomies and 45 CRPC metastases from 32 patients. RNA was amplified prior to hybridization against a common reference pool of prostate tumor cell lines.