Over-expression of pituitary tumor-transforming 1 in human endometrial cancer.
Gynecologic cancers including cancers of the endometrium are a clinical problem (1-4). We mined published microarray data (5, 6) to discover genes associated with endometrial cancers by comparing transcriptomes of the normal endometrium and endometrial tumors from humans. We identified pituitary tumor-transforming 1, encoded by PTTG1, as among the most differentially expressed genes, transcriptome-wide, in cancers of the endometrium. PTTG1 was expressed at significantly higher levels in endometrial tumor tissues as compared to the endometrium. Importantly, primary tumor expression of PTTG1 was correlated with recurrence-free survival in patients with endometrial cancer. PTTG1 may be a molecule of interest in understanding the etiology or progression of human endometrial cancer.