Endometrial stromal sarcoma: a rare form of undifferentiated endometrial cancer

Uterine sarcomas are a rare for of uterine cancers. They account for 0.2% of uterine cancers. The median age group is 40 to 60 years. They run an indolent course. About 60% women recur after a long period. Metastasis may occur even after 20 years. They can be classified into low grade, high grade and undifferentiated types. Low grade ESS has good prognosis. Surgery with adjuvant hormonal therapy is the mainstay of treatment. Adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy have no role in management. The role of lymphadenectomy is not clear. The first line treatment for recurrence is a repeat surgery. Patients require a long term follow up to detect recurrence. Here we present a case of perimenopausal women presenting as a case of AUB. MRI initially diagnosed it as a case of fibroid. Patient underwent TAH with BSO. Subsequent hispathology and immunohistochemistry revealed it to be Low grade ESS. Although rare, endometrial stromal sarcoma should be considered as a differential diagnosis in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women presenting as AUB.

Characterization of testis-specific LINC01016 gene reveals isoform-specific roles in controlling biological processes

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as critical regulators of biological processes. However, the aberrant expression of an isoform from the same lncRNA gene could lead to RNA with altered functions due to changes in their conformations, leading to diseases. Here, we describe a detailed characterization of the gene which encodes long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 01016 (LINC01016, a.k.a., LncRNA1195) with a focus on its structure, exon usage, and expression in human and macaque tissues. In this study, we show that it is among the highly expressed lncRNAs in the testis, exclusively conserved among non-human primates, suggesting its recent evolution and is expressed and processed into 12 distinct RNAs in testis, cervix, and uterus tissues. Further, we integrate de novo annotation of expressed LINC01016 transcripts and isoform-dependent gene expression analyses to show that human LINC01016 is a multi-exon gene, processed through differential exon usage with isoform-specific roles. Furthermore, in cervical, testicular, and uterine cancers, LINC01016 isoforms are differentially expressed, and their expression is predictive of survival in these cancers. The study has revealed an essential aspect of lncRNA biology, which is rarely associated with coding RNAs that lncRNA genes are precisely processed to generate isoforms with distinct biological roles in specific tissues.

Carcinosarcoma of uterine corpus – A case report

Uterine carcinosarcomas comprise a distinct rare entity of uterine malignancy with a very aggressive nature and poor prognosis. They make up to less than 5% of all uterine cancers. We report a case of 45yr old lady who presented with the complain of vaginal bleeding since two months and was a known case of dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Postoperative histopathological examination of the hysterectomy specimen revealed the diagnosis of uterine carcinosarcoma.

BRCA Genes and Related Cancers: A Meta-Analysis from Epidemiological Cohort Studies

Background and Objectives:BRCA1 and BRCA2 are genes located in different chromosomes that are disproportionately associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome. Their association with other cancers remains to be explored. Materials and Methods: We systematically reviewed cohort studies to explore the association of BRCA 1 and BRCA2 with various cancers except lung cancer. We searched PubMed, Medline (EBSCOhost) and relevant articles published up to 10 May 2021. The odds ratio, standardised morbidity rate and cancer-specific standardised incidence ratio were pooled together as relative risk (RR) estimates. Results: Twelve studies were included for analysis. BRCA mutation increased pancreatic and uterine cancers by around 3–5- and 1.5-fold, respectively. BRCA mutation did not increase brain cancer; colorectal cancer; prostate, bladder and kidney cancer; cervical cancer; or malignant melanoma. BRCA2 increased gastric cancer with RR = 2.15 (1.98–2.33). Conclusion: The meta-analysis results can provide clinicians and relevant families with information regarding increased specific cancer risk in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.

Building a stem cell-based primate uterus

The uterus is the organ for embryo implantation and fetal development. Most current models of the uterus are centred around capturing its function during later stages of pregnancy to increase the survival in pre-term births. However, in vitro models focusing on the uterine tissue itself would allow modelling of pathologies including endometriosis and uterine cancers, and open new avenues to investigate embryo implantation and human development. Motivated by these key questions, we discuss how stem cell-based uteri may be engineered from constituent cell parts, either as advanced self-organising cultures, or by controlled assembly through microfluidic and print-based technologies.

Disparities in government and nonprofit organization funding may hinder clinical trial development for underfunded cancers.

1573 Background: National Cancer Institute (NCI) and nonprofit organization (NPO) funding is critical for research and advocacy, but may not be equitable across cancers. This could negatively impact clinical trial development for underfunded cancers. Methods: This study evaluated funding from the NCI and NPOs with > $5 million in annual revenue supporting leukemia, lymphoma, melanoma, lung, breast, colorectal, pancreatic, hepatobiliary, prostate, ovarian, cervical and endometrial cancers from 2015-2018 based on publically available reports and tax records. The primary objectives were to assess for disparities in NCI and NPO funding across different cancers compared to their median incidence and mortality from 2015-2018, and to determine if underfunding correlates with fewer clinical trials found in clinicaltrials.gov. Correlations between combined NCI and NPO funding for each cancer and its incidence, mortality and number of clinical trials were evaluated using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: Diseases with the largest combined NCI+NPO funding were breast ($3.75 billion), leukemia ($1.99 billion) and lung cancer ($1.56 billion). Those with the least funding were endometrial ($94 million), cervical ($292 million), and hepatobiliary cancers ($348 million). These data are summarized in the Table. Disease-specific NCI+NPO funding correlated well with incidence, but less so with mortality (Pearson correlation coefficients: 0.74 and 0.63, respectively). Disease-specific NPO funding correlated moderately well with incidence, but was poorly correlated with mortality (Pearson correlation coefficients: 0.54 and 0.39, respectively). Breast cancer, leukemia and lymphoma were consistently well-funded compared to their incidence and mortality, while colorectal, lung, hepatobiliary and uterine cancers were consistently underfunded. The amount of NCI funding, NPO funding and combined NCI+NPO funding for a particular cancer each correlated strongly with the number of clinical trials for that disease (Pearson correlation coefficients: 0.88, 0.87 and 0.91, respectively). Conclusions: Many cancers with high incidence and mortality are underfunded. Cancers with higher mortality rates receive less funding, particularly from NPOs. Underfunding strongly correlates with fewer clinical trials, which could impede future advances in underfunded cancers.[Table: see text]