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Updated: May 4, 2026
Author Spotlight: Advancing Reproductive Immunology with a Protocol for the Quantitative Evaluation of Endometrial Immune Cells
Published on: October 13, 2023
A multimarker qPCR platform for the characterisation of endometrial cancer
Anna Supernat1, Sylwia Łapińska-Szumczyk2, Hanna Majewska3
1Department of Medical Biotechnology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdańsk and Medical University of Gdańsk, Dębinki 1, 80-211 Gdańsk, Poland.
Abstract:
The molecular background of endometrial cancer (EC) has not been fully elucidated. In the present study, we developed a quantitative PCR (qPCR) platform to examine the gene dosages of the potential molecular markers MGB1, TOP2A, ERBB1-4, MYC, CCND1, ESR1 and PI3K. The platform was applied in samples collected from 157 EC patients (stage I-IV) to verify its clinical utility and to examine the diagnostic and prognostic significance of the analysed biomarkers. The gene dosage pattern of the ERBB family and its downstream effectors PI3K and MYC showed particularly strong correlations with clinicopathological data. The ERBB PI3K/Akt pathway was upregulated in 31 (20%) of 156 cases. Activation of the ERBB PI3K/Akt pathway was positively correlated with a higher stage (p=0.001), higher grade (p=0.001), histological type II disease (p=0.0003) and metastases (p=0.02). The implemented hierarchical clustering revealed that cluster 2 was characterised by high copy numbers of the studied genes. Cluster 2 was associated with shorter overall survival (p=0.05). The platform was found to be a fast and simple method for direct analysis of the genes involved in uterine carcinogenesis, making it feasible for EC biology characterisation.
