The mutational landscape of endometrial cancer

Globally, endometrial carcinoma causes about 74000 deaths annually. Endometrial carcinomas can be classified into several histological subtypes including endometrioid and serous histologies. Over the course of the past two years, a number of studies have decoded the exomes of endometrioid and serous endometrial carcinomas revealing novel somatically mutated genes that are likely to drive their development. Moreover, an integrated genomic analysis of these two histological subtypes by The Cancer Genome Atlas has led to their molecular reclassification into four discrete molecular subgroups. Collectively, these genomic advances set the stage for future biological and clinical studies to determine their relevance for patient care.