Published in:
01-01-2014 | Thoracic Oncology
Down-Regulation of Stromal Caveolin-1 Expression in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Potent Predictor of Lymph Node Metastases, Early Tumor Recurrence, and Poor Prognosis
Authors:
Yibin Jia, MD, Nana Wang, MD, Jianbo Wang, MD, Hui Tian, MD, Wei Ma, MD, Kai Wang, MD, Bingxu Tan, MD, Guangyu Zhang, MD, Shengsi Yang, MD, Bing Bai, MD, Yufeng Cheng, MD, PhD
Published in:
Annals of Surgical Oncology
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Issue 1/2014
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Abstract
Background
Recent studies have identified loss of stromal caveolin-1 (Cav-1) expression as a new prognostic histological characteristic in various types of human cancers. However, the clinical and pathological significance of stromal Cav-1 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains largely unknown. We examined Cav-1 expression in both tumor and stromal cells in ESCC tissue by immunohistochemical analysis to evaluate its clinicopathological significance and prognostic value.
Methods
A total of 110 patients with ESCC who underwent surgical resection were included in this study. The expression of Cav-1 in both tumor and stromal cells in esophageal tumor tissues was examined immunohistochemically.
Results
Cav-1 expression was found in the cytoplasm of both tumor and stromal cells. Tumor Cav-1 overexpression was observed in 37.3 % tumors, which correlated to deeper tumor invasion (p = 0.038). Down-regulation of stromal Cav-1 expression was observed in 40.9 % tumors. The stromal Cav-1 down-regulation group had more lymph node metastases and more locoregional recurrences than those with higher expression (p = 0.020 and p = 0.002, respectively). In addition, down-regulation of stromal Cav-1 expression was associated with shorter disease-free survival (p < 0.001) and overall survival (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that down-regulation of stromal Cav-1 expression was an independent prognostic factor for both disease-free survival (p = 0.028) and overall survival (p = 0.007).
Conclusions
Down-regulation of stromal Cav-1 expression in ESCC had high malignant potential. It predicts high-risk of lymph node metastases and locoregional recurrence, and it could be a powerful prognostic marker for patients with ESCC.