Characterizing the invasive tumor front of aggressive uterine adenocarcinoma and leiomyosarcoma

Invasive tumor front (the tumor-host interface) is vitally important in malignant cell progression and metastasis. Tumor cell interactions with resident and infiltrating host cells and with the surrounding extracellular matrix and secreted factors ultimately determine the fate of the tumor. In this study we focus on the invasive tumor front, making an in-depth characterization of reticular fiber scaffolding, infiltrating immune cells, gene expression and methylation profiles of classified aggressive primary uterine adenocarcinomas and leiomyosarcomas. Total genomic DNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections of microdissected invasive tumor front (ITF) of uterine adenocarcinomas (uADC) and leiomyosarcomas (uLMS) were processed on the Infinium MethylationEPIC array (850K). Samples that passed the quality controls (ADC=21, LMS=9) using GenomeStudio and BeadArray Controls Reporter (Illumina), were analyzed to asses their DNA methylation profile.