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Comparison of Molecular Alterations and Survival Analysis in Uterine Endometrioid Carcinomas and Serous Carcinomas: An In Silico Study

Year 2026, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 244 - 254, 31.01.2026
https://doi.org/10.47482/acmr.1831809

Abstract

Background: Endometrioid and serous endometrial carcinomas exhibit distinct molecular, epigenetic, and clinical characteristics. This study aimed to compare mutations, survival, and biological pathway analysis between these two subtypes using an in silico approach.
Methods: Endometrioid (n=399) and serous (n=109) carcinomas from The Cancer Genome Atlas Uterine Corpus Endometrial Carcinoma (PanCancer Atlas) dataset were analyzed via cBioPortal. Genomic mutations, mRNA expression levels, MSI (microsatellite instability) sensor scores and overall survival were compared. Differentially mutated genes were identified. P< 0.0.5 and q< 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Pathway enrichment analyses were performed using g:Profiler and WebGestalt.
Results: 662 genomic mutations and 10757 mRNA expression levels showed significant differences. In endometrioid carcinomas, PTEN, ARID1A, CTNNB1, CTCF, KMT2B, KRAS, NEB, and RNF43 were the most significantly mutated genes; whereas in serous carcinomas, TP53 and PPP2R1A were the predominantly mutated genes (p<0.001 and q<0.001). The MSI-High rate was higher in endometrioid tumors (31.6% vs. 0.9%, p = 7.215e-3). The median survival was 102.83 months in endometrioid tumors and 63.91 months in serous tumors (p=5.28e-8). Pathway analyses revealed enrichments in proteasome, mismatch repair, DNA replication, spliceosome, base excision repair, as well as developmental and metabolic pathways.
Conclusion: It was observed that endometrioid tumors develop through gradual genetic disruptions within the PI3K– PTEN–AKT–mTOR and WNT/β-catenin axes, whereas serous tumors develop through high genomic instability driven by TP53 mutations, and DNA repair pathway defects. This molecular distinction explains the more aggressive clinical behavior and lower survival rates of serous carcinomas, emphasizing the importance of specific diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Ethical Statement

The study did not require ethical approval

Supporting Institution

None

Thanks

None

References

  • Bell DW, Ellenson LH. Molecular Genetics of Endometrial Carcinoma. Annu Rev Pathol Mech Dis. 2019;14(1):339–67. Jamieson A, McAlpine JN. Molecular Profiling of Endometrial Cancer From TCGA to Clinical Practice. J Natl Compr Cancer Netw. 2023;21(2):210–6.
  • Dedes KJ, Wetterskog D, Ashworth A, Kaye SB, Reis-Filho JS. Emerging therapeutic targets in endometrial cancer. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2011;8(5):261–71.
  • Lax SF, Kendall B, Tashiro H, Slebos RJC, Ellenson LH. The frequency of p53, k-ras mutations, and microsatellite instability differs in uterine endometrioid and serous carcinoma. Cancer. 2000;88(4):814–24.
  • Kandoth C, McLellan MD, Vandin F, Ye K, Niu B, Lu C, et al. Mutational landscape and significance across 12 major cancer types. Nature. 2013;502(7471):333–9.
  • Levine DA. Integrated genomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma. Nature. 2013;497(7447):67–73.
  • Cerami E, Gao J, Dogrusoz U, Gross BE, Sumer SO, Aksoy BA, Jacobsen A, et al. The cBio cancer genomics portal: an open platform for exploring multidimensional cancer genomics data. Cancer Discov. 2012;2(5):401–4.
  • Kolberg L, Raudvere U, Kuzmin I, Adler P, Vilo J, Peterson H. g:Profiler—interoperable web service for functional enrichment analysis and gene identifier mapping (2023 update). Nucleic Acids Res. 2023;51(W1):W207–12.
  • Liao Y, Wang J, Jaehnig EJ, Shi Z, Zhang B. WebGestalt 2019: gene set analysis toolkit with revamped UIs and APIs. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019;47(W1):W199–W205.
  • Getz G, Gabriel SB, Cibulskis K, Lander E, Sivachenko A, Sougnez C, et al. Integrated genomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma. Nature. 2013;497(7447):67–73.
  • Bogani G, Ray-Coquard I, Concin N, Ngoi NYL, Morice P, Enomoto T, et al. Uterine serous carcinoma. Gynecol Oncol. 2021;162(1):226–34.
  • Urick ME, Bell DW. Clinical actionability of molecular targets in endometrial cancer. Nat Rev Cancer. 2019;19(9):510–21.
  • Urick ME, Rudd ML, Godwin AK, Sgroi D, Merino M, Bell DW. PIK3R1 (p85α) Is Somatically Mutated at High Frequency in Primary Endometrial Cancer. Cancer Res. 2011;71(12):4061–7.
  • Correction: High Frequency of PIK3R1 and PIK3R2 Mutations in Endometrial Cancer Elucidates a Novel Mechanism for Regulation of PTEN Protein Stability. Cancer Discov. 2021;11(10):2658–2658.
  • Wiegand KC, Hennessy BT, Leung S, Wang Y, Ju Z, McGahren M, et al. A functional proteogenomic analysis of endometrioid and clear cell carcinomas using reverse phase protein array and mutation analysis: protein expression is histotype-specific and loss of ARID1A/BAF250a is associated with AKT phosphorylation. BMC Cancer. 2014;14:120.
  • Giannakis M, Hodis E, Jasmine Mu X, Yamauchi M, Rosenbluh J, Cibulskis K, et al. RNF43 is frequently mutated in colorectal and endometrial cancers. Nat Genet. 2014;46(12):1264–6.
  • Cuevas D, Valls J, Gatius S, Roman-Canal B, Estaran E, Dorca E, et al. Targeted sequencing with a customized panel to assess histological typing in endometrial carcinoma. Virchows Arch. 2019;474(5):585–98.
  • Savarese M, Sarparanta J, Vihola A, Jonson PH, Johari M, Rusanen S, et al. Panorama of the distal myopathies. Acta Myologica. 2020;39(4):245–265.
  • López-Ozuna VM, Kogan L, Hachim MY, Matanes E, Hachim IY, Mitric C, et al. Identification of Predictive Biomarkers for Lymph Node Involvement in Obese Women With Endometrial Cancer. Front Oncol. 2021;11:695404.
  • Molefi T, Mabonga L, Hull R, Sebitloane M, Dlamini Z. From Genes to Clinical Practice: Exploring the Genomic Underpinnings of Endometrial Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2025;17(2):320.
  • Boruta DM, Gehrig PA, Groben PA, Bae-Jump V, Boggess JF, Fowler WC, et al. Uterine serous and grade 3 endometrioid carcinomas. Cancer. 2004;101(10):2214–21.
  • Sait KH, Anfinan N, Sait H, Shamrani H, Sait M. Overall and progression-free survival in endometrial carcinoma: A single-center retrospective study (2000–2018). Ann Saudi Med. 2023;43(5):315–28.
  • Subramanian A, Tamayo P, Mootha VK, Mukherjee S, Ebert BL, Gillette MA, et al. Gene set enrichment analysis: a knowledge-based approach for interpreting genome-wide expression profiles. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2005;102(43):15545–50.
  • Pham M, Wilson S, Govindarajan H, Lin C-H, Lichtarge O. Discovery of disease- and drug-specific pathways through community structures of a literature network. Bioinformatics. 2020;36(6):1881–8.
  • Vogelstein B, Papadopoulos N, Velculescu VE, Zhou S, Diaz LA, Kinzler KW. Cancer Genome Landscapes. Science. 2013;339(6127):1546–58.
  • Jumaah AS, Al-Haddad HS, Salem MM, McAllister KA, Yasseen AA. Mismatch repair deficiency and clinicopathological characteristics in endometrial carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Pathol Transl Med. 2021;55(3):202–11.
  • Jacquemont C, Taniguchi T. Proteasome Function Is Required for DNA Damage Response and Fanconi Anemia Pathway Activation. Cancer Res. 2007;67(15):7395–405.
  • Perl AL, O’Connor CM, Fa P, Mayca Pozo F, Zhang J, Zhang Y, et al. Protein phosphatase 2A controls ongoing DNA replication by binding to and regulating CDC45. J Biol Chem. 2019;294(45):17043–59.

Uterin Endometrioid Karsinomlar ve Seröz Karsinomlarda Moleküler Değişiklikler ve Sağkalım Analizlerinin Karşılaştırılması: İn Silico Çalışma

Year 2026, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 244 - 254, 31.01.2026
https://doi.org/10.47482/acmr.1831809

Abstract

Giriş: Endometrioid ve seröz endometriyal karsinomlar, belirgin moleküler, epigenetik ve klinik özellikler gösteren iki farklı alt tiptir. Bu çalışma, bu iki alt tip arasındaki mutasyonları, sağkalımı ve biyolojik yolak analizlerini in silico yaklaşımla karşılaştırmayı amaçlamıştır.
Yöntem: Kanser Genom Atlas Uterin Korpus Endometrial Karsinom (Pan-Kanser Atlas) veri setinden endometrioid (n=399) ve seröz (n=109) karsinomlar cBioPortal aracılığıyla analiz edilmiştir. Genomik mutasyonlar, mRNA ekspresyon düzeyleri, MSİ (mikrosatellit instabilite) sensör skorları ve genel sağkalım karşılaştırılmıştır. Farklı eksprese edilen genler (DEG’ler) belirlenmiştir. p<0.05 ve q<0.05 istatistiksel olarak anlamlı kabul edilmiştir. Yolak zenginleştirme analizleri g:Profiler ve WebGestalt kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmiştir.
Bulgular: 662 genomik mutasyon ve 10757 mRNA anlamlı farklılık göstermiştir. Endometrioid karsinomlarda PTEN, ARID1A, CTNNB1, CTCF, KMT2B, KRAS, NEB ve RNF43 en anlamlı DEG’ler olarak bulunurken; seröz karsinomlarda TP53 ve PPP2R1A en baskın mutasyonlardır (p<0.001 ve q<0.001). MSİ-High oranı endometrioid tümörlerde daha yüksektir (31.6% vs. 0.9%, p = 7.215e-3). Median sağkalım endometrioid tümörlerde 102.83 ay, seröz tümörlerde ise 63.91 ay olarak saptanmıştır (p=5.28e-8). Yolak analizleri proteazom, hatalı eşleşme onarımı, DNA replikasyonu, spliceozom ve baz eksizyon onarım yolaklarının yanı sıra gelişimsel ve metabolik yolaklarda da zenginleşme olduğunu göstermiştir.
Sonuç: Endometrioid tümörlerin PI3K–PTEN–AKT–mTOR ve WNT/β-katenin eksenlerinde kademeli genetik bozulmalar yoluyla geliştiği; buna karşılık seröz tümörlerin TP53 mutasyonları, yüksek genomik instabilite ve DNA onarım yolak kusurları ile ilişkili olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Bu moleküler farklılık, seröz karsinomların daha agresif klinik davranışını ve daha düşük sağkalım oranlarını açıklamakta olup, alt tipe özgü tanısal ve terapötik stratejilerin önemini vurgulamaktadır.

Ethical Statement

Çalışmanın etik onaya ihtiyacı yoktu

Supporting Institution

Yok

Thanks

Yok

References

  • Bell DW, Ellenson LH. Molecular Genetics of Endometrial Carcinoma. Annu Rev Pathol Mech Dis. 2019;14(1):339–67. Jamieson A, McAlpine JN. Molecular Profiling of Endometrial Cancer From TCGA to Clinical Practice. J Natl Compr Cancer Netw. 2023;21(2):210–6.
  • Dedes KJ, Wetterskog D, Ashworth A, Kaye SB, Reis-Filho JS. Emerging therapeutic targets in endometrial cancer. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2011;8(5):261–71.
  • Lax SF, Kendall B, Tashiro H, Slebos RJC, Ellenson LH. The frequency of p53, k-ras mutations, and microsatellite instability differs in uterine endometrioid and serous carcinoma. Cancer. 2000;88(4):814–24.
  • Kandoth C, McLellan MD, Vandin F, Ye K, Niu B, Lu C, et al. Mutational landscape and significance across 12 major cancer types. Nature. 2013;502(7471):333–9.
  • Levine DA. Integrated genomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma. Nature. 2013;497(7447):67–73.
  • Cerami E, Gao J, Dogrusoz U, Gross BE, Sumer SO, Aksoy BA, Jacobsen A, et al. The cBio cancer genomics portal: an open platform for exploring multidimensional cancer genomics data. Cancer Discov. 2012;2(5):401–4.
  • Kolberg L, Raudvere U, Kuzmin I, Adler P, Vilo J, Peterson H. g:Profiler—interoperable web service for functional enrichment analysis and gene identifier mapping (2023 update). Nucleic Acids Res. 2023;51(W1):W207–12.
  • Liao Y, Wang J, Jaehnig EJ, Shi Z, Zhang B. WebGestalt 2019: gene set analysis toolkit with revamped UIs and APIs. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019;47(W1):W199–W205.
  • Getz G, Gabriel SB, Cibulskis K, Lander E, Sivachenko A, Sougnez C, et al. Integrated genomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma. Nature. 2013;497(7447):67–73.
  • Bogani G, Ray-Coquard I, Concin N, Ngoi NYL, Morice P, Enomoto T, et al. Uterine serous carcinoma. Gynecol Oncol. 2021;162(1):226–34.
  • Urick ME, Bell DW. Clinical actionability of molecular targets in endometrial cancer. Nat Rev Cancer. 2019;19(9):510–21.
  • Urick ME, Rudd ML, Godwin AK, Sgroi D, Merino M, Bell DW. PIK3R1 (p85α) Is Somatically Mutated at High Frequency in Primary Endometrial Cancer. Cancer Res. 2011;71(12):4061–7.
  • Correction: High Frequency of PIK3R1 and PIK3R2 Mutations in Endometrial Cancer Elucidates a Novel Mechanism for Regulation of PTEN Protein Stability. Cancer Discov. 2021;11(10):2658–2658.
  • Wiegand KC, Hennessy BT, Leung S, Wang Y, Ju Z, McGahren M, et al. A functional proteogenomic analysis of endometrioid and clear cell carcinomas using reverse phase protein array and mutation analysis: protein expression is histotype-specific and loss of ARID1A/BAF250a is associated with AKT phosphorylation. BMC Cancer. 2014;14:120.
  • Giannakis M, Hodis E, Jasmine Mu X, Yamauchi M, Rosenbluh J, Cibulskis K, et al. RNF43 is frequently mutated in colorectal and endometrial cancers. Nat Genet. 2014;46(12):1264–6.
  • Cuevas D, Valls J, Gatius S, Roman-Canal B, Estaran E, Dorca E, et al. Targeted sequencing with a customized panel to assess histological typing in endometrial carcinoma. Virchows Arch. 2019;474(5):585–98.
  • Savarese M, Sarparanta J, Vihola A, Jonson PH, Johari M, Rusanen S, et al. Panorama of the distal myopathies. Acta Myologica. 2020;39(4):245–265.
  • López-Ozuna VM, Kogan L, Hachim MY, Matanes E, Hachim IY, Mitric C, et al. Identification of Predictive Biomarkers for Lymph Node Involvement in Obese Women With Endometrial Cancer. Front Oncol. 2021;11:695404.
  • Molefi T, Mabonga L, Hull R, Sebitloane M, Dlamini Z. From Genes to Clinical Practice: Exploring the Genomic Underpinnings of Endometrial Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2025;17(2):320.
  • Boruta DM, Gehrig PA, Groben PA, Bae-Jump V, Boggess JF, Fowler WC, et al. Uterine serous and grade 3 endometrioid carcinomas. Cancer. 2004;101(10):2214–21.
  • Sait KH, Anfinan N, Sait H, Shamrani H, Sait M. Overall and progression-free survival in endometrial carcinoma: A single-center retrospective study (2000–2018). Ann Saudi Med. 2023;43(5):315–28.
  • Subramanian A, Tamayo P, Mootha VK, Mukherjee S, Ebert BL, Gillette MA, et al. Gene set enrichment analysis: a knowledge-based approach for interpreting genome-wide expression profiles. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2005;102(43):15545–50.
  • Pham M, Wilson S, Govindarajan H, Lin C-H, Lichtarge O. Discovery of disease- and drug-specific pathways through community structures of a literature network. Bioinformatics. 2020;36(6):1881–8.
  • Vogelstein B, Papadopoulos N, Velculescu VE, Zhou S, Diaz LA, Kinzler KW. Cancer Genome Landscapes. Science. 2013;339(6127):1546–58.
  • Jumaah AS, Al-Haddad HS, Salem MM, McAllister KA, Yasseen AA. Mismatch repair deficiency and clinicopathological characteristics in endometrial carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Pathol Transl Med. 2021;55(3):202–11.
  • Jacquemont C, Taniguchi T. Proteasome Function Is Required for DNA Damage Response and Fanconi Anemia Pathway Activation. Cancer Res. 2007;67(15):7395–405.
  • Perl AL, O’Connor CM, Fa P, Mayca Pozo F, Zhang J, Zhang Y, et al. Protein phosphatase 2A controls ongoing DNA replication by binding to and regulating CDC45. J Biol Chem. 2019;294(45):17043–59.
There are 27 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Pathology
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Zeynep Sağnak Yılmaz 0000-0002-3225-2486

Submission Date November 28, 2025
Acceptance Date January 15, 2026
Publication Date January 31, 2026
Published in Issue Year 2026 Volume: 7 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Sağnak Yılmaz, Z. (2026). Comparison of Molecular Alterations and Survival Analysis in Uterine Endometrioid Carcinomas and Serous Carcinomas: An In Silico Study. Archives of Current Medical Research, 7(1), 244-254. https://doi.org/10.47482/acmr.1831809

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