TP53 mutations in endometrial cancer contribute to clinically-relevant radiation resistance and highlight the potential for biomarker-driven radiosensitization strategies.
Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common type of gynecologic malignancy in the United States, with over 66, 200 new cases expected in 2023. The number of mortalities per year now approximate that of ovarian cancer. Despite our ability to identify different biologic clusters of EC, we have yet to understand the functional impact of key genomic alterations associated with discrepant prognoses and exploit this knowledge for therapeutic benefit. Given this, we set out to determine how alterations in p53 signaling, as conferred my TP53 mutations, impact radiotherapy response in EC. We also explored if manipulation of this signaling pathway could be utilized as a radio-sensitization strategy in EC. Our work demonstrates that p53 signaling plays a significant role in radiotherapy response for EC and that leveraging this genomic data may allow us to exploit this pathway as a viable radiotherapeutic target in a significant number of EC cases.