Inside prostate cancer news from the 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium

Background: Prostate cancer (PC) is a heterogeneous disease that requires a personalized treatment approach for proper patient management. Aim: We analyzed a selected overview of the most important news recently presented at the 2021 ASCO genitourinary cancer symposium. Results: In particular, we focused on the identification of predictive biomarkers as potential targets for therapy. Molecular signatures of increased T cell activity, proliferation, and hormone dependence were associated with greater probability of response to apalutamide in non-metastatic CRPC. Pathogenic variants of DDR genes mutations detected with circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis, which had a high concordance with tumor tissue analysis, might represent a useful way for selecting mutated patients for poly (adenosine diphosphate [ADP]-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors therapy. Loss of PTEN could be a target for ipatasertib (a pan-AKT inhibitor) associated with abiraterone in mCRPC patients. Conclusions: The 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium significantly contributed to the complex research goal of intimately understanding PC carcinogenesis with the ultimate aim of improving patient outcomes.