Publications by authors named "Aline Talhouk"

Objective: Previous research suggests serum CA125 reflects extra-uterine disease in patients with endometrial carcinoma (EC). Our objective was to determine if CA125 can identify patients with extra-uterine and/or nodal metastases, the association of this biomarker with EC molecular subtype, and to explore an optimal cutoff in this context.

Methods: We assessed the association of CA125 levels with clinicopathologic and outcomes data on a cohort of 1107 molecularly classified EC.

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Aims: Mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma (MLA) of the endometrium is often a diagnostic challenge, due to its morphological resemblance to other more common Müllerian neoplasms. This study aimed to retrospectively identify overlooked MLA in a large endometrial carcinoma cohort, using a combination of immunohistochemistry (IHC), morphology and KRAS sequencing.

Methods And Results: IHC was conducted on 1094 endometrial carcinomas, identifying 16 potential MLA cases based on GATA3+ and/or TTF1+ and ER- staining patterns, which subsequently underwent detailed histological review, KRAS sequencing and ProMisE molecular classification.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to evaluate how perimenopausal and postmenopausal women in British Columbia perceive reproductive aging and their concerns about endometrial cancer (EC).
  • Interviews with 31 women revealed a simplistic understanding of midlife changes, a tendency to "tough it out," and low awareness of EC risk factors, with confusion between cervical cancer and EC.
  • Participants expressed the need for better education on EC and recommendations for raising awareness about it during discussions on perimenopause and menopause.
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BACKGROUNDDespite an overall poor prognosis, about 15% of patients with advanced-stage tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) survive 10 or more years after standard treatment.METHODSWe evaluated the tumor microenvironment of this exceptional, understudied group using a large international cohort enriched for long-term survivors (LTS; 10+ years; n = 374) compared with mid-term (MTS; 5-7.99 years; n = 433) and short-term survivors (STS; 2-4.

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Until now, limited clinical significance had been reported for disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in gynecologic malignancies. DTCs were previously reported not to be associated with established risk factors, L1CAM immunoreactivity, and outcome in endometrial carcinoma (EC). This study's primary objective was to investigate potential correlations of DTCs in the bone marrow (BM) of EC patients with disease-related survival, and a secondary objective was to evaluate associations between molecular classification of EC and DTCs.

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Endometrial cancer (EC) has four molecular subtypes with strong prognostic value and therapeutic implications. The most common subtype (NSMP; No Specific Molecular Profile) is assigned after exclusion of the defining features of the other three molecular subtypes and includes patients with heterogeneous clinical outcomes. In this study, we employ artificial intelligence (AI)-powered histopathology image analysis to differentiate between p53abn and NSMP EC subtypes and consequently identify a sub-group of NSMP EC patients that has markedly inferior progression-free and disease-specific survival (termed 'p53abn-like NSMP'), in a discovery cohort of 368 patients and two independent validation cohorts of 290 and 614 from other centers.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate RB1 expression and survival across ovarian carcinoma histotypes and how co-occurrence of BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA) alterations and RB1 loss influences survival in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC).

Experimental Design: RB1 protein expression was classified by immunohistochemistry in ovarian carcinomas of 7,436 patients from the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium. We examined RB1 expression and germline BRCA status in a subset of 1,134 HGSC, and related genotype to overall survival (OS), tumor-infiltrating CD8+ lymphocytes, and transcriptomic subtypes.

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Background: The increased pervasiveness of digital health technology is producing large amounts of person-generated health data (PGHD). These data can empower people to monitor their health to promote prevention and management of disease. Women make up one of the largest groups of consumers of digital self-tracking technology.

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Objectives: Optimal management of patients with stage IA p53abn endometrial cancer without myoinvasion, classified as intermediate risk in the 2020 European Society of Gynaecological Oncology, European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, and European Society of Pathology (ESGO-ESTRO-ESP) guidelines, and the 2022 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) guidelines, is currently unclear. Practice varies from surgery alone to adjuvant radiation±chemotherapy. Our aim was to assess the risk of disease recurrence in patients with stage IA p53abn endometrial cancer without myoinvasion compared with stage IA with myoinvasion (<50%).

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied a common genetic change that happens in a type of ovarian cancer called high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), looking at how it affects patient survival.
  • They found that losing the RB1 protein was linked to longer survival in patients with HGSC, but it was the opposite for a different type of ovarian cancer called endometrioid cancer.
  • Patients with both RB1 loss and certain inherited genetic changes had much better survival rates compared to those with just one of these problems or none at all.
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Purpose: Endometrioid ovarian carcinoma (ENOC) is the second most-common type of ovarian carcinoma, comprising 10%-20% of cases. Recently, the study of ENOC has benefitted from comparisons to endometrial carcinomas including defining ENOC with four prognostic molecular subtypes. Each subtype suggests differential mechanisms of progression, although tumor-initiating events remain elusive.

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Objectives: Despite recommendations for integrating molecular classification of endometrial cancers (EC) into pathology reporting and clinical management, uptake is inconsistent. To assign ProMisE subtype, all molecular components must be available (POLE mutation status, mismatch repair (MMR) and p53 immunohistochemistry (IHC)) and often these are assessed at different stages of care and/or at different centres resulting in delays in treatment. We assessed a single-test DNA-based targeted next generation sequencing (NGS) molecular classifier (ProMisE NGS), comparing concordance and prognostic value to the original ProMisE classifier.

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Background: After endometriosis surgery, pain can persist or recur in a subset of patients. A possible reason for persistent pain after surgery is central nervous system sensitization and associated pelvic pain comorbidities. Surgery addresses the peripheral component of endometriosis pain pathophysiology (by lesion removal) but may not treat this centralized pain.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to investigate the relationship between p53 protein expression and survival rates in women with different types of ovarian cancer, particularly high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), endometrioid carcinoma (EC), and clear cell carcinoma (CCC), using a large cohort from the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis (OTTA) consortium.
  • It was found that abnormal p53 expression patterns were prevalent in 93.4% of HGSC cases, but in EC and CCC, these abnormal patterns were linked to a significantly higher risk of death, indicating a poor prognosis.
  • The research concluded that while abnormal p53 expression doesn't affect survival in HGSC, it serves as a strong independent prognostic marker for EC and CCC,
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Background: Better understanding of prognostic factors in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) is critical, as diagnosis confers an aggressive disease course. Variation in tumor DNA methylation shows promise predicting outcome, yet prior studies were largely platform-specific and unable to evaluate multiple molecular features.

Methods: We analyzed genome-wide DNA methylation in 1,040 frozen HGSC, including 325 previously reported upon, seeking a multi-platform quantitative methylation signature that we evaluated in relation to clinical features, tumor characteristics, time to recurrence/death, extent of CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), gene expression molecular subtypes, and gene expression of the ATP-binding cassette transporter TAP1.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Endometrial carcinoma (EC) has four molecular subtypes, with the no specific molecular profile (NSMP) subtype being the most common, found in about 50% of cases. Although it generally has a favorable prognosis, it includes a wide range of tumor characteristics.
  • - This study analyzed 1,110 NSMP ECs to identify factors that could predict outcomes, focusing on clinicopathologic features, immunohistochemical markers, and genetic information to categorize tumors as low-risk or high-risk.
  • - Key findings revealed that low-risk NSMP tumors (grade 1-2, ER-positive) had a 5-year disease-specific death rate of only 1.6%, in contrast to high-risk NS
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  • Recent research indicates that the type of molecular subtype in endometrial cancer (EC) can help predict clinical outcomes and guide treatment decisions.
  • In a study involving 2,472 EC patients, adjuvant chemotherapy showed significant benefits for patients with p53abn subtype but did not provide additional benefits for those with MMRd subtype.
  • The findings suggest that while adjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in p53abn EC patients, it may not enhance outcomes for MMRd patients, highlighting the need for further research tailored to specific molecular subtypes.
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Importance: Women pursue treatment to relieve symptoms, while surgeons repair anatomy, underlining the importance of the relationship between symptoms and anatomy.

Objective: We hypothesized different anatomical and symptom phenotypes associated with pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Our objective was to investigate prevalence of phenotypes to explore associations of symptoms with anatomical defects.

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Incorporation of molecular classification into clinicopathologic assessment of endometrial carcinoma (EC) improves risk stratification. Four EC molecular subtypes, as identified by The Cancer Genome Atlas, can be diagnosed through a validated algorithm Pro active M olecular R is k Classifier for E ndometrial Cancer (ProMisE) using p53 and mismatch repair (MMR) protein immunohistochemistry (IHC), and DNA polymerase epsilon ( POLE) mutational testing. Cost and access are major barriers to universal testing, particularly POLE analysis.

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Background: Cyclin E1 (CCNE1) is a potential predictive marker and therapeutic target in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). Smaller studies have revealed unfavorable associations for CCNE1 amplification and CCNE1 overexpression with survival, but to date no large-scale, histotype-specific validation has been performed. The hypothesis was that high-level amplification of CCNE1 and CCNE1 overexpression, as well as a combination of the two, are linked to shorter overall survival in HGSC.

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  • Mucinous ovarian carcinoma (MOC) is a rare type of ovarian cancer that doesn’t respond well to regular chemotherapy and has poor survival rates for advanced cases.
  • Researchers studied tissue samples from 126 MOC patients to understand the types of immune cells in the tumors.
  • Most MOCs have very few immune cells ("cold" tumors), which suggests these patients might not respond well to immune therapies.
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Background: Recently, we showed a >60% difference in 5-year survival for patients with tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) when stratified by a 101-gene mRNA expression prognostic signature. Given the varied patient outcomes, this study aimed to translate prognostic mRNA markers into protein expression assays by immunohistochemistry and validate their survival association in HGSC.

Methods: Two prognostic genes, FOXJ1 and GMNN, were selected based on high-quality antibodies, correlation with protein expression and variation in immunohistochemical scores in a preliminary cohort (n = 134 and n = 80, respectively).

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Article Synopsis
  • A study analyzed the impact of molecular classification on the management of endometrial cancer patients by examining data from 1,357 cases diagnosed in 2016 across Canada, revealing significant molecular subtype diversity.
  • Only a small percentage of patients underwent necessary immunohistochemistry (IHC) testing for MMR and p53 proteins, leading to missed opportunities for early diagnosis and treatment options.
  • The findings highlight the need for standardized biomarker reporting and routine integration of molecular subtyping in pathology practice to improve patient outcomes.
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  • Advanced-stage mucinous ovarian carcinoma (MOC) is difficult to treat due to poor chemotherapy response and the need for better biomarkers for stage I treatment, leading researchers to analyze gene-expression and clinicopathologic data.
  • A study identified 19 genes potentially linked to patient prognosis, validating findings with data from 604 patients that included different types of tumors.
  • Results indicated that an infiltrative pattern of invasion correlates with worse survival, and higher levels of certain proteins (THBS2 and TAGLN) are associated with poor prognosis, suggesting both may be useful for determining treatment approaches.
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