Background: Aberrant expression of interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) has been reported in several hematologic malignancies. However, the prognostic significance of IRF4 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unknown.
Methods: IRF4 protein expression in ESCC tumor specimens was determined immunohistochemically. The correlation of IRF4 expression with clinico-pathological features was assessed from a cohort of 100 patients with primary ESCC. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between IRF4 expression and patient survival.
Results: A Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that patients with high IRF4 expression had a significantly longer overall survival rate than those with low IRF4 expression (p = 0.0006). Furthermore, multi-variate analyses revealed that IRF4 protein expression is an independent prognostic indicator for ESCC patients.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that increased IRF4 protein expression correlates with improved outcome in ESCC. IRF4 may therefore represent a promising prognostic biomarker and potential immuno-therapeutic target for patients with ESCC.
Keywords: Biomarker; Cancer; Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; IRF4; Prognosis; Survival; Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).
Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.