LAUSR

191Background: Previous studies have reported an association between blood-based detection of androgen receptor splice variant-7 (AR-V7) and resistance to abiraterone/enzalutamide in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Further characterization of AR-V7 and its clinical correlates are necessary but depend on the development of methods that allow for reliable and specific measurement of AR-V7. In this study, we developed and evaluated a novel junction-specific AR-V7 RNA in situ hybridization (RISH) test. Methods: We developed a novel RISH assay targeting single exon-exon junction, allowing for highly-specific detection of mature cytoplasmic AR-FL and AR-V7 mRNA in native cell and tissue environment. We compared quantitative RISH AR-V7 results generated from an automated scoring system with AR-V7 levels quantified by RT-PCR in a panel of cell lines. Using the validated assay, we quantified AR-V7 signals in 58 prostate tumor biopsies. We conducted preliminary evaluation of the cl...