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Updated: Mar 28, 2026

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Improved survival associated with somatic PIK3CA mutations in copy-number low endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma

Douglas I Lin1

  • 1Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

Oncology Letters
|January 2, 2016
PubMed

Insights

PIK3CA mutations improve survival in copy-number low-endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma (CNL-EEC). This survival benefit was specific to the CNL-EEC subgroup within The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Genomics
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • The phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is crucial in endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma (EEC) development.
  • The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project identified four molecular subgroups of EEC, with copy-number low-EEC (CNL-EEC) being the most prevalent.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between PI3K pathway alterations and survival outcomes in EEC patients.
  • To determine if PIK3CA mutations impact survival within specific TCGA molecular subgroups.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of clinical and genomic data from 307 TCGA EEC patients, including 90 from the CNL-EEC subgroup.
  • Evaluation of overall survival, clinicopathological characteristics, and PIK3CA gene mutations and their functional effects.

Main Results:

  • Somatic PIK3CA mutations were linked to significantly improved overall survival in the CNL-EEC subgroup (48/90 cases, P=0.018).
  • This survival advantage was exclusive to the CNL-EEC subgroup and not observed in other TCGA molecular subgroups.
  • Activating PIK3CA mutations were common, and no significant differences in age, stage, or grade were found between mutated and non-mutated groups.

Conclusions:

  • PIK3CA mutations demonstrate a favorable impact on EEC patient survival, contingent upon molecular sub-stratification.
  • Further research with larger cohorts and long-term follow-up is necessary to validate these findings.
Keywords:
PIK3CA mutationThe Cancer Genome Atlasendometrial adenocarcinomaphosphoinositide-3-kinase pathway

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