A team consisting of scientists from Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Austria, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, and Sweden find that PI3K/mTOR inhibition is treatment option for some cases of uterine sarcomas. The researchers noted that ““Uterine sarcomas have generally been underexplored due to their rareness. Nevertheless, they behave aggressively and are difficult to treat, resulting in a high clinical need.” Uterine sarcoma is a rare cancer that occurs when malignant cells form in the muscle and supporting tissues of the uterus. Uterine sarcomas are heterogeneous tumors and usually have an aggressive clinical behavior. Based on the type of cell they developed from, uterine sarcomas can be divided into several different types, including leiomyosarcoma, endometrial stromal sarcoma, undifferentiated sarcoma, and adenosarcoma. The high rates of recurrence and mortality point to the need to find new, more effective therapies. One obstacle is that currently there is no biomarker to predict the response to treatment. Now, the new study shows that a protein can be an indicator of poor prognosis for patients with uterine leiomyosarcoma, a form of uterine sarcoma that arises from the smooth muscle lining the walls of the uterus. Frédéric Amant at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and co-workers examined the expression of some promising protein targets in a total of 288 human uterine sarcoma samples. The proteins studied include PTEN, PDGFR-alpha, ERBB2, and EGFR, and P-S6S240. P-S6S240 was found in 32% of high-grade tumors and in 9% of low-grade tumors. Besides, patients with leiomyosarcoma expressing P-S6S240 had shorter survival. The researchers noted that P-S6S240 is involved in the PI3K/mTOR cell-signaling pathway which can drive tumor growth. They tested an experimental PI3K/mTOR inhibitor in mice implanted with human leiomyosarcoma tumors, and found that the mice that responded to the treatment showed basal P-S6S240 expression while the nonresponding model did not show P-S6S240 expression. The study demonstrates “Dual PI3K/mTOR inhibition represents an effective therapeutic strategy in uterine leiomyosarcoma, and p-S6S240 expression is a potential predictive biomarker for response to treatment.” The study spears in Clinical Cancer Research. In addition to the Netherlands Cancer Institute, University of Leuven, University of Bergen, Leiden University Medical Center, Medical University of Graz, University of Bonn, and some other research institutes. By the way, Cusabio provides PTEN, PDGFR-alpha, ERBB2, EGFR, PI3K, and mTOR proteins and Recombinant Glp1r.
