Mutation-Driven Signals of ARID1A and PI3K Pathways in Ovarian Carcinomas: Alteration Is An Opportunity

The chromosome is a functionally dynamic structure. The dynamic nature of chromosome functionally connects it to almost every event within a cell, in health and sickness. Chromatin remodeling system acts in unison with the cell survival pathway in mediating a variety of cellular functions, including mitosis, differentiation, DNA damage repair, and apoptosis. In humans, the 16 SWI/SNF complexes are a class of nucleosome remodelers, and ARID1A, an epigenetic tumor suppressor, is a member of mammalian 17 chromatin remodeling complex, SWI/SNF. Alterations of chromatin remodeling system contribute to tumorigenic events in various cancers, including ovarian cancers. Oncogenic changes of genes of the PI3K pathway are one of the potential genetic determinants of ovarian carcinomas. In this review, we present the data demonstrating the co-occurrence of mutations of ARID1A and the PI3K pathway in our cohort of ovarian cancers from the Avera Cancer Institute (SD, USA). Taking into account data from our cohort and the cBioPortal, we interrogate the opportunity provided by this co-occurrence in the context of mutation-driven signals in the life cycle of a tumor cell and its response to the targeted anti-tumor drugs.