# Evaluation of the tumor microenvironment in serous uterine cancers

> **NIH NIH P30** · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · 2024 · $192,489

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
This application is being submitted in response to the Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) identified as NOT-CA-
24-044. Uterine cancer (UC) is the fourth most common cancer in women and the most common gynecological
malignancy. Unfortunately, both incidence and mortality are rising for UC, while survival rates are falling. In fact,
UC is the only cancer type in which patients had a worse 5-year survival rate in 2012 than they did in 1975, and
in 2024 UC is projected to surpass ovarian cancer as the deadliest gynecologic malignancy. Uterine serous
carcinomas (USC) are a particularly aggressive form of UC, making up only 10% of UC cases but accounting for
approximately 40% of deaths that disproportionally impact Black women. Although some progress has been
made to improve therapies in this aggressive and lethal subtype of UC, there is much work to be done to improve
the outcomes of women diagnosed with this terrible disease. One treatment avenue that shows particular
promise is modulation of the tumor microenvironment (TME), which includes diverse cell types that support the
tumor such as immune cell populations, cancer-associated fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. The TME in UC is
likely to change with patient age, as ovarian hormone levels are drastically lower, tumor stage, as tumor cells
encounter new cell types as they invade further from the endometrium, and tumor subtype, as changes in tumor
cell behavior alter the surrounding TME. To determine these important features of the TME in USC, we will use
single cell RNA-seq on freshly collected USC and UEC tumors as well as normal uterine samples. This rich
dataset will provide an atlas of cell types and gene expression patterns found across UC tumors, which will be
valuable for the community as a whole. We will use this dataset to ask 3 key questions:
 1) How does patient age impact the microenvironment of the normal endometrium and USC?
 2) What are the TME differences across different stages of USC?
 3) How does the TME of USC compare to the TME of UEC?
The resulting data and analyses will provide a portrait of the different cell types in the TME and the gene
expression patterns that each cell type exhibits. The findings will provide a strong foundation for further study of
the TME in USC, which will hopefully lead to novel treatment approaches that target the TME, biomarkers that
predict therapy response, and strategies to improve current TME targeting therapies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11127234
- **Project number:** 3P30CA042014-35S3
- **Recipient organization:** UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
- **Principal Investigator:** CORNELIA M ULRICH
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $192,489
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2024-08-01 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11127234

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11127234, Evaluation of the tumor microenvironment in serous uterine cancers (3P30CA042014-35S3). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11127234. Licensed CC0.

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