The present study aimed to explore the importance of P53 and Cox-2 protein expression in esophageal cancer and assess their influence on prognosis. The expression of P53 and Cox-2 was assessed in esophageal cancer samples from 195 patients subjected to radical surgery at Changzhou First People's Hospital (Changzhou, China) between May 2010 and December 2011. Expression of P53 and Cox-2 proteins were detected in 60.5% (118/195) and 69.7% (136/195) of the samples, respectively, and were co-expressed in 43.1% (84/195) of the samples. A correlation was identified between P53 expression and overall survival (OS) (P=0.0351) as well as disease-free survival (DFS) (P=0.0307). In addition, the co-expression of P53 and Cox-2 also correlated with OS (P=0.0040) and DFS (P=0.0042). P53 expression (P=0.023), TNM staging (P<0.001) and P53/Cox-2 co-expression (P=0.009) were identified as independent factors affecting OS in patients with esophageal cancer via a Cox multivariate regression model analysis. A similar analysis also identified P53 expression (P=0.020), TNM staging (P<0.001) and P53/Cox-2 co-expression (P=0.008) as independent prognostic factors influencing DFS in these patients. Binary logistic regression analysis demonstrated a correlation between P53 expression (P=0.012), TNM staging (P<0.001), tumor differentiation level (P=0.023) and P53/Cox-2 co-expression (P=0.021), and local recurrence or distant esophageal cancer metastasis. The results of the present study indicate that P53 and Cox-2 proteins may act synergistically in the development of esophageal cancer, and the assessment of P53/Cox-2 co-expression status in esophageal cancer biopsies may become an important diagnostic criterion to evaluate the prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer.
Keywords: Cox-2; P53; esophageal cancer; prognosis; relevance.