Tamoxifen Activates PI3Kinase Signaling in Uterine Cancer and Substitutes for the lack of PIK3CA Mutations
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ABSTRACT: Tamoxifen treatment in breast cancer patients increases their risk of developing uterine cancer that is more likely of poor prognosis. However, the exact mechanism leading to this increased and the worse outcomeendometrial cancer risk following tamoxifen exposure are still unknown, and effective preventive strategies are lacking. To address this question, we performed whole-exome sequencing of 21 (discovery cohort) and digital droplet PCR for 40 (validation cohort ) tamoxifen-associated uterine cancers. We identified genomic features that have been previously reported for uterine cancer, including recurrent mutations in PTEN, KRAS, TP53 and ARIDA1 and copy number alterations in the RTK and PI3K pathway. However, we also found that tamoxifen-associated uterine cancers have a substantially low frequency of PIK3CA and PIK3R1 mutations, the most prevalent mutations in non-tamoxifen-associated uterine cancers. Moreover, overall survival is significantly worse in uterine tumors without PIK3CA mutations, which could explain the observed poor prognosis in tamoxifen-associated uterine cancers . We also performed in vivo studies of normal uterine tissue and show that tamoxifen activates the PI3Kinase pathway and increases proliferation that in turn is abrogated by the PI3Kinase inhibitor, alpelisib. Together, this study uncovers the unique molecular profile of tamoxifen-associated uterine cancer and , offers mechanistic insights in the observed increase in endometrial cancer risk following tamoxifen treatment and a potential preventive approach. Moreover, we here describe for the first time a new general principle that a drug, as a side effect, can activate a pathway which would otherwise only be activated if a somatic mutation would have occurred thereby mimicking the effect of a driver mutation for cancer.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE179647 | GEO | 2022/07/07
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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