Investigator
Morehouse School Of Medicine
Inequities in Surgical Access for Women With Endometrial Cancer in the United States: Opportunities for Surgical Justice
Significant disparities exist in women with endometrial cancer. Disparate incidence and mortality rates affect many populations including racial/ethnic minority women and women who live in rural communities. These populations are more likely to experience delays in care due to multi-dimensional factors ranging from lack of awareness between the women and their non-gynecologic providers to lack of access to health care and/or to gynecologic oncologists. Multiple layers of intervention will be needed to mitigate the inequities, including policy changes, advocacy to change insurance coverage, and network inclusion of gynecologic oncologists. There are opportunities for non-gynecological surgical specialists who take care of women at risk of endometrial cancer to facilitate multidisciplinary care and to refer as appropriately to gynecologic specialty care.
Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis Associated with Endometrial Cancer Tumorigenesis and Survival Outcomes
Endometrial cancer (EC) presents a substantial health challenge, with increasing incidence and mortality rates. Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, understanding the molecular underpinnings of EC progression remains unknown. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive investigation utilizing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-UCEC n = 588) data to analyze gene co-expression patterns, elucidate biological process pathways, and identify potential prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers for EC, using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), differential gene expression, survival analysis, and functional analysis, respectively. We determined that the Green module (M5) was significantly correlated with patient survival. Functional analysis of the genes in module M5 indicates involvement in cell cycle regulation, mitotic spindle assembly, and intercellular signaling. TPX2, BUB1, and ESPL1 were among the top differentially expressed genes in the Green module, suggesting their involvement in critical pathways that contribute to disease progression and patient survival outcomes. The biological and clinical assessments of our findings provide an understanding of the molecular landscape of EC and identified several potential prognostic markers for patient risk stratification and treatment selection.
