UCSF team links DNA methylation patterns in 219 endometrial tumors to recurrence risk
Researchers profiled DNA methylation in 219 low-grade endometrioid adenocarcinomas and found patterns that correlate with recurrence. The data were reported at the AMP 2026 meeting.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, profiled DNA methylation in 219 tumors to identify patterns associated with recurrence of low-grade, limited-stage, copy number–low endometrioid adenocarcinoma, according to news-medical.net news-medical.net
news-medical.netnews-medical.netOpen source ↗. This is the most common type of endometrial cancer. The study was led by Matthew Zunitch and was scheduled for a poster session at 9:15 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, at the Seattle Convention Center.
The work was shown at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) 2026 Annual Meeting & Expo, held Nov. 10–14 in Seattle. In the meeting materials it is cited as an example of how molecular profiling can reveal differences in recurrence risk and tumor biology that may not be apparent through conventional classification.
Methylation patterns and recurrence
The authors reported a spectrum of methylation changes that strongly correlated with recurrence risk. All tumors belonged to one narrowly defined group: low-grade, limited-stage and copy number–low. Within this group, methylation profiling was used to look for differences in the likelihood of recurrence.
The poster is titled "Methylomic Stratification of Recurrence Risk in Primary, Low-Grade, Copy Number-Low Endometrioid Adenocarcinoma of the Uterus."
Mutations and tumor biology
Clusters defined by methylation also showed differential enrichment in CTNNB1 and DICER1 mutations, as well as copy number gains in chromosome 1q news-medical.net
news-medical.netnews-medical.netOpen source ↗. According to the authors, this suggests differences in the underlying tumor biology between the clusters.
The authors state that the findings suggest epigenetic profiling may help distinguish recurrence risk among patients whose tumors otherwise share similar clinical and pathologic characteristics. The material does not give recurrence rates for individual clusters or describe a test intended for clinical use.
