Objective: To survey E-cadherin (E-cad) expression in tumor tissue and serum of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients, and to observe the clinical significance of their expression.
Methods: Forty-eight samples of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissue, 23 samples of erosive esophagitis tissue, 24 samples of normal esophagus tissue and the corresponding sera were obtained. We used immunohistochemistry (IHC) to detect expression of E-cad in the tissues and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to examine expression of E-cad in the serum. Furthermore, we collected complete clinicopathological data from the participating patients.
Results: The expression level of E-cad in the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissue was lower than that in normal esophagus tissues and erosive esophagitis tissues (P<0.05). Moreover, the expression level of E-cad was related to the depth of invasion, the status of lymph node metastasis and the level of differentiation of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (P<0.05). The expression level of serum E-cad of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients was obviously higher than that in the serum of normal esophagus controls and erosive esophagitis patients (P<0.05). But the expression level of E-Cad in the serum of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients was unrelated to clinicopathological features. The expression level of E-cad in the tissue was not correlated with that in the serum(P=0.134).
Conclusion: The expression of E-cad in tissues may assistin the diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The expression of E-cad in the serum may assistin the diagnostic screening of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.