LAUSR

Metastatic relapse after treatment is the leading cause of cancer mortality, and known resistance mechanisms are missing for most treatments administered to patients. To bridge this gap, we analyze a pan-cancer cohort (META-PRISM) of 1,031 refractory metastatic tumors profiled via whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing. META-PRISM tumors, particularly prostate, bladder, and pancreatic types, displayed the most transformed genomes compared to primary untreated tumors. Standard-of-care resistance biomarkers were identified only in lung and colon cancers - 9.3% of META-PRISM tumors, indicating that too few resistance mechanisms have received clinical validation. In contrast, we verified the enrichment of multiple investigational and hypothetical resistance mechanisms in treated compared to non- treated patients, thereby confirming their putative role in treatment resistance. Additionally, we demonstrated that molecular markers improve six-month survival prediction, particularly in patients with advanced breast cancer. Our analysis establishes the utility of the META- PRISM cohort for investigating resistance mechanisms and performing predictive analyses in cancer.