Clinically Relevant Molecular Subtypes in Leiomyosarcoma

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Confirmed molecular subtypes in leiomyosarcoma are linked to distinct clinical outcomes, according to an article published online in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

The authors used three previously identified molecular subtypes in leiomyosarcoma and aimed to determine whether their presence could be confirmed in independent cohorts.

In this study, 99 cases of leiomyosarcoma were profiled using 3’end RNA-Sequencing (3SEQ), but only 82 from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were used to identify and confirm the existence of the three molecular subtypes.

Investigators identified two new formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue-compatible diagnostic immunohistochemical markers: LMOD1 for the first subtype and ARL4C for the second subtype.

Using a leiomyosarcoma tissue microarray sample with known clinical outcome, it was determined that subtype I was associated with a positive outcome in extrauterine leiomyosarcoma and that subtype II was related to a negative outcome in both uterine and extrauterine leiomyosarcoma.

The different molecular subtypes in leiomyosarcoma showed significant variations in gene expression levels, which suggest that they may respond differentially to the novel targeted therapies being developed.