Alberto Berjón

The Proteomic Landscape of CTNNB1 Mutated Low-Grade Early-Stage Endometrial Carcinomas

Endometrial carcinoma is the most frequent gynecologic malignancy in western countries. In recent years, mutations in CTNNB1 have been associated with worse prognosis in low-risk carcinomas. However, there is a lack of understanding of the proteomic implications of CTNNB1 mutations in this type of tumor. In this study, we performed shotgun proteomics using Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) tissue samples of CTNNB1 mutated and wild-type low-risk endometrial carcinomas. A publicly available proteomic and transcriptomic database was used to validate results. Differential protein expression and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis revealed dysregulation of pathways associated with cell keratinization, immune response modulation, and intracellular calcium regulation. CTNNB1 mutated tumors showed immune dysregulation at multiple levels including cytokine secretion, cell adhesion, and lymphocyte activation. These results were supported by tissue multiplex immunofluorescence analysis, demonstrating reduced CD8 tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and different immune spatial interaction patterns. Intracellular calcium dysfunction was associated with key transcript dysregulation. We found an increased expression of CAMK2A and ROR2, suggesting a potential role for non-canonical Wnt pathway activation in CTNNB1 mutated tumors.

Prognostic implications of tumor-infiltrating T cells in early-stage endometrial cancer

Patients with endometrial cancer differ in terms of the extent of T-cell infiltration; however, the association between T-cell subpopulations and patient outcomes remains unexplored. We characterized 285 early-stage endometrial carcinoma samples for T-cell infiltrates in a tissue microarray format using multiplex fluorescent immunohistochemistry. The proportion of T cells and their subpopulations were associated with clinicopathological features and relapse-free survival outcomes. CD3+ CD4+ infiltrates were more abundant in the patients with higher grade or non-endometrioid histology. Cytotoxic T cells (CD25+, PD-1+, and PD-L1+) were strongly associated with longer relapse-free survival. Moreover, CD3+ PD-1+ stromal cells were independent of other immune T-cell populations and clinicopathological factors in predicting relapses. Patients with high stromal T-cell fraction of CD3+ PD-1+ cells were associated with a 5-year relapse-free survival rate of 93.7% compared to 79.0% in patients with low CD3+ PD-1+ fraction. Moreover, in patients classically linked to a favorable outcome (such as endometrioid subtype and low-grade tumors), the stromal CD3+ PD-1+ T-cell fraction remained prognostically significant. This study supports that T-cell infiltrates play a significant prognostic role in early-stage endometrial carcinoma. Specifically, CD3+ PD-1+ stromal cells emerge as a promising novel prognostic biomarker.

Decoding the Molecular Landscape of 262 Uterine Sarcomas: RNA-Seq Clustering of ESS, UTROSCT, and UUS with Prognostic Insights.

Low-grade endometrial stromal sarcomas (LG-ESS), high-grade ESS (HG-ESS), undifferentiated uterine sarcomas (UUS), and uterine tumors resembling ovarian sex cord tumors are distinct non-smooth muscle cell neoplasms with varying clinical outcomes, often exhibiting overlapping characteristics. Diagnosis can be supported by identifying characteristic recurrent translocations, which may be absent in some cases, complicating the distinction of equivocal cases. Additionally, cases with overlapping features of low-grade and high-grade characteristics are recognized. To address these challenges, we analyzed RNA-seq profiles of 262 cases. Our results revealed that LG-ESS, with and without recurrent fusions, clustered into 2 partially overlapping expression profiles associated with distinct overall and relapse-free survival outcomes, with the cluster containing a majority of fusion-negative tumors demonstrating better prognoses. uterine tumors resembling ovarian sex cord tumors expression profiles closely resembled those of both LG-ESS subgroups, with NCOA3 fusion-positive cases clustering in groups with better survival outcomes. Furthermore, a distinct cluster for HG-ESS with BCOR and YWHAE fusions was identified, differentiating these tumors from HG-ESS without fusions. ONECUT3 emerged as a potential specific marker for this HG-ESS-fusion entity. A significant expression overlap was observed between monomorphic HG-ESS without fusions and pleomorphic UUS. These samples separated further into 2 mixed clusters distinguished by differences in immune activity, which significantly influenced overall survival and relapse-free survival outcomes. Unsupervised clustering of UUS revealed subgroups resembling either HG-ESS or muscle-cell-differentiated tumors, suggesting that UUS may include poorly differentiated distinct entities, such as leiomyosarcoma, and that the distinction from HG-ESS may, in some cases, be arbitrary. Our transcriptome analysis highlights several entities with distinct survival characteristics, providing a foundation for further characterization of these rare, often difficult-to-classify, tumors.