Gene expression profiling in endometriosis and ovarian cancer
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: This study aimed to identify an essential gene in the malignant transformation of endometriosis to clear cell ovarian carcinoma and endometrioid ovarian carcinoma.
Project description:Mechanisms of immune dysregulation against established tumors are relatively well understood. Much less is known about the role of immune effectors against cancer precursor lesions. Endometrioid and clear cell ovarian tumors may partly derive from endometriosis, a commonly diagnosed chronic inflammatory disease. We performed here the most comprehensive immune gene expression analysis of pelvic inflammation in endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer (EAOC).
Project description:Mechanisms of immune dysregulation against established tumors are relatively well understood. Much less is known about the role of immune effectors against cancer precursor lesions. Endometrioid and clear cell ovarian tumors may partly derive from endometriosis, a commonly diagnosed chronic inflammatory disease. We performed here the most comprehensive immune gene expression analysis of pelvic inflammation in endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer (EAOC). RNA was extracted from 120 paraffin tissue blocks comprising of normal endometrium (n=32), benign endometriosis (n=30), atypical endometriosis (n=15) and EAOC (n=43). Serous tumors (n=15) were included as non-endometriosis associated controls. The immune microenvironment was profiled using Nanostring and the nCounter® GX Human Immunology Kit, comprising probes for a total of 511 immune genes. Please note that 3 normal endometrium samples did not pass the array quality filtering and therefore excluded in the data analyses.
Project description:Endometriosis, a benign inflammatory disease whereby endometrial-like tissue grows outside the uterus, is a risk factor for endometriosis-associated ovarian cancers. In particular, ovarian endometriomas, cystic lesions of deeply invasive endometriosis, are considered the precursor lesion for ovarian clear-cell carcinoma (OCCC). To explore the transcriptomic landscape, OCCC from women with pathology-proven concurrent endometriosis (n = 4) were compared to benign endometriomas (n = 4) by bulk RNA and small-RNA sequencing.
Project description:Endometriosis is associated with increased risk of epithelial ovarian cancers (EOCs). Using data from large endometriosis and EOC genome-wide association meta-analyses we estimate the genetic correlation and evaluate the causal relationship between genetic liability to endometriosis and EOC histotypes, and identify shared susceptibility loci. We estimate a significant genetic correlation (rg) between endometriosis and clear cell (rg=0.71), endometrioid (rg=0.48) and high-grade serous (rg=0.19) ovarian cancer, associations supported by Mendelian randomization analyses. Bivariate meta-analysis identify 28 loci associated with both endometriosis and EOC, including 19 with evidence for a shared underlying association signal. Differences in the shared risk suggest different underlying pathways may contribute to the relationship between endometriosis and the different histotypes. Functional annotation using transcriptomic and epigenomic profiles of relevant tissues/cells highlights several target genes. This comprehensive analysis reveals profound genetic overlap between endometriosis and EOC histotypes with valuable genomic targets for understanding the biological mechanisms linking the diseases.
Project description:Epithelial ovarian cancer, or ovarian carcinoma (OC), is a diverse disease. Two of the rarer subtypes, clear cell OC (CCOC) and endometrioid OC (ENOC), both arise from ovarian endometriotic cysts, particularly atypical endometriosis. CCOC and ENOC have similar mutation profiles and share a common cell of origin, but their cellular phenotypes and clinical outcomes are distinct; in particular, CCOC has poor clinical survival. The most well-known difference between the histotypes is the universal overexpression of HNF1B (Hepatocyte nuclear factor-1β) in clear cell tumors and overexpression of ESR1 in ENOC. It is not well understood how these discrete histotypes arise from the same cell of origin. Via transcriptional (n=57) and DNA methylation analysis (N=127) of these rare tumors, we show that CCOC closely resembles secretory endometrium in transcriptional profile; whereas ENOC transcriptomes resemble proliferative endometrium.
Project description:Epithelial ovarian cancer, or ovarian carcinoma (OC), is a diverse disease. Two of the rarer subtypes, clear cell OC (CCOC) and endometrioid OC (ENOC), both arise from ovarian endometriotic cysts, particularly atypical endometriosis. CCOC and ENOC have similar mutation profiles and share a common cell of origin, but their cellular phenotypes and clinical outcomes are distinct; in particular, CCOC has poor clinical survival. The most well-known difference between the histotypes is the universal overexpression of HNF1B (Hepatocyte nuclear factor-1β) in clear cell tumors and overexpression of ESR1 in ENOC. It is not well understood how these discrete histotypes arise from the same cell of origin. Via transcriptional (n=57) and DNA methylation analysis (N=127) of these rare tumors, we show that CCOC closely resembles secretory endometrium in transcriptional profile; whereas ENOC transcriptomes resemble proliferative endometrium.
Project description:Ovarian cancer is a malignant gynecologic disease rarely diagnosed in the early stages. Among ovarian cancers, clear cell carcinoma has a poor prognosis due to its malignant potential. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression in cells by suppressing the translation of the target gene or by degrading the target mRNA. They are also secreted from the cells in the blood, binding to the proteins or lipids and assisting in cell-cell communication. Hence, serum miRNAs can also be diagnostic biomarkers for ovarian cancer. This study investigated and identified specific miRNAs for ovarian clear cell carcinoma and compared them to those of ovarian endometrioma in healthy patients. CA125, an ovarian tumor marker, did not differ between patients with ovarian clear cell carcinoma, endometriosis, or healthy controls. Four miRNAs (miR-146a-5p, miR-191-5p, miR-484, and miR-574-3p) were analyzed. The miR-146a-5p and miR-191-5p expression levels were significantly increased in the serum samples from the patients with ovarian clear cell carcinoma compared to the healthy controls but not in the patients with endometriosis (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the bioinformatics analysis showed that CCND2 and NOTCH2 were the candidate target genes of miR 146a-5p and miR-191-5p. In conclusion, our results showed that miR 146a-5p and miR-191-5p might be useful as early and non-invasive diagnostic tools in ovarian clear cell carcinoma. These miRNAs can help in distinguishing between ovarian clear cell carcinoma and ovarian endometrioma. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have screened any candidates specifically for clear cell carcinoma.
Project description:Background. Endometriosis (EMS) is a chronic, gynecological condition affecting 6-10% of reproductive-age women. While these lesions are benign, ovarian EMS present cancer-like features, and can progress to endometriosis-correlated ovarian cancer (ECOC) through a multistep process. Given the regulatory role of miRNAs in gene expression and biological pathways, we aimed to identify miRNAs associated with the malignant transformation of ovarian EMS, which could serve as a potential diagnostic tool for the early identification of such patients. Methods. Global miRNA profiling was performed in patients with benign ovarian EMS (EMS-b) and patients with ECOC. Differential expression analysis (DEA) of miRNAs between EMS-b, EMS tissues from patients with ECOC (EMS-k) and ECOC tissues was performed. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were built to evaluate the binary classification performance of significant miRNAs. Results. Comparison between EMS-b and EMS-k revealed 13 significantly deregulated miRNAs. Furthermore, when comparing ECOC and EMS-b we observed significant deregulation of 181 miRNAs. ROC analysis revealed a panel of seven upregulated miRNAs with accuracies above 0.7 in identifying EMS-k and EMS-b. Notably, four miRNAs (hsa-miR-200a-3p, hsa-miR-141-3p, hsa-miR-183-5p, hsa-miR-10a-5p) were consistently upregulated in both EMS-k and ECOC tissues. Conclusions. Our study identified a panel of miRNA biomarkers that may serve as potential candidates for the early detection of ECOC in patients previously diagnosed with ovarian EMS.