Prognostic and clinicopathological features of E-cadherin,α-catenin,β-catenin,γ-catenin and cyclin D_1 expression in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

摘要

AIM: To investigate the expression of E-cadherin, α-catenin,β-catenin, γ-catenin and cyclin D1 in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and analyze their interrelationship with clinicopathological variables and their effects on prognosis. METHODS: Expression of E-cadherin, α-catenin, β-catenin, γ-catenin and cyclin D1 was determined by EnVision or SABC immunohistochemical technique in patients with ESCC consecutively, their correlation with clinical characteristics was evaluated and analyzed by univariate analysis. RESULTS：The reduced expression rate of E-cadherin, α-catenin, β-catenin and γ-catenin was 88.7%, 69.4%, 35.5% and 53.2%, respectively. Cyclin D1 positive expression ratewas 56.5%. Expression of γ-catenin was inversely correlated with the degree of tumor differentiation and lymph node metastasis (x^2=4.183 and x^2=5.035, respectively, P<0.05), whereas the expression of E-cadherin was correlated only with the degree of differentiation (x^2=5.769, P<0.05). Reduced expression of E-cadherin and γ-catenin was associated with poor differentiation of tumor, reduced expression of γ-catenin was also associated with lymph node metastasis. There obviously existed an inverse correlation between level of E-cadherin and γ-catenin protein and survival. The 3-year survival rates were 100% and 56% in E-cadherin preserved expression group and inreduced expression one and were 78% and 48% in γ-catenin preserved expression group and in reduced expression one, respectively. The differences were both statistically significant. Correlation analysis showed the expression level of α-catenin correlated with that of E-cadherin and β-catenin (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The reduced expression of E-cadherin and γ-catenin, but not α-catenin, β-catenin and cyclin D1, implies more aggressive malignant behaviors of esophageal carcinoma cells and predicts the poor prognosis of patients.