label: Aggressive Variant Prostate Carcinoma
label_lc: aggressive variant prostate carcinoma
description: "A lethal form of advanced castration-resistant prostate carcinoma that emerges in the later stages of castration-resistant treatment. It is an adaptive response to androgen receptor pathway inhibition. The morphologic features vary, ranging from poorly differentiated carcinomas to mixed adenocarcinoma-small cell carcinomas to pure small cell carcinomas expressing neuroendocrine markers. Clinically, it manifests with rapidly progressive disease, visceral or lytic bone metastases and bulky tumor masses. Molecular studies have shown the loss of tumor suppressor genes TP53 and RB1."