Over-expression of thymidylate synthetase 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 thymidylate synthetase, encoded by TYMS, as among the most differentially expressed genes, transcriptome-wide, in cancers of the endometrium. TYMS was expressed at significantly higher levels in endometrial tumor tissues as compared to the endometrium. Importantly, in human endometrial cancer, primary tumor expression of TYMS was correlated with overall survival in white patients with low mutational burden. TYMS may be a molecule of interest in understanding the etiology or progression of human endometrial cancer.