How to Find Better Treatment Options for Uterine Cancer?

A better understanding of uterine cancer at the cellular level can lead to better treatment in the future.

Identifying networks of genes involved in uterine cancer could be potential targets for more effective drug therapies, suggests Clemson University geneticist Allison Hickman’s research.

The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 66,000 women in the U.S. receive uterine cancer diagnoses this year. More than 12,500 women will die from the disease in 2022.

Uterine Cancer / Endometrial Cancer - Symptoms - Risk Factors – Prognosis - Treatment
Uterine Cancer or Cancer of the Uterus (or Endometrial Cancer) refer to cancers affecting the uterus or the womb in women. Learn about the different types of uterine cancer, symptoms, staging, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, survival rates and news on uterine cancer.

‘Multiple genes are involved in the development of uterine cancer.’

Using data from publicly available genomic databases, researchers built condition-specific biomarker systems for normal uterine tissue and two subtypes of uterine cancer — endometrial cancer, the most common type, and uterine carcinosarcoma, which is more rare, aggressive, and deadly.

These systems allow for a more comprehensive look into the biological networks and pathways affected in uterine cancer than single-gene analyses done in previous studies.

“We’re looking for patterns. In this study, we were able to distinguish genes that had different relationships in uterine cancer than they did in normal uterine tissue,” said Hickman, who earned her PhD in genetics from Clemson in December.

What Women Should Know About Gynecologic Cancer
Cancers arising from the organs of the female reproductive tract (uterine, ovarian, cervical, vulval and vaginal cancers) are termed gynecologic cancers.

No one gene determines whether a person will develop cancer. Rather, it’s a complex system of genes. This study also found 11 high-priority genes associated with uterine cancer. Those genes are potential targets for drug therapies.

The study findings are published in the journal G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics.

Novel Approach for Treating Uterine Cancer
A new treatment for endometrial cancer developed loads a drug into the tumor-targeting nanoparticles making the tumor cells vulnerable to chemotherapy's toxicity.

The work of researchers in the field is important because scientists can see if therapeutics approved for other types of cancer target the same broken genes.

Adjusting those genes with small doses of drugs that target all of those broken genes at the same time as opposed to with one giant nuclear bomb of poison like a lot of cancer drugs we have right now.

New Prognosis Marker for Uterine Cancer Identified
Inhibition of a newly identified protein P-S6S240 is effective in the therapy and prognosis of patients with leiomyosarcoma, a form of uterine cancer.

One hundred years from now, there will be drugs that interact with most of the genes, so that researchers will be able to design cocktails based on the genetic profile of the tumor.

Source-Medindia