title: Serum soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) in patients with primary squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus.
abstract: Esophageal carcinomas have been shown to express Fas ligand (FasL) and down-regulate Fas to escape from host immune surveillance. Circulating soluble FasL (sFasL) has been suggested to provide protection from Fas-mediated apoptosis. The aim of this study was to assess serum sFasL levels in esophageal cancer. The pretreatment levels of sFasL in the serum of 100 patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer and 41 healthy volunteers were determined by ELISA. Probability of survival was calculated according to the method of Kaplan-Meier. The prognostic influence of high and low level of sFasL was analyzed with the log-rank test. The mean serum level of sFasL in patients with esophageal cancer was significantly higher than that in healthy donors (1.567+/-1.786 vs 0.261+/-0.435, p<0.0001). The levels of serum sFasL were significantly higher in advanced stages (II vs IV p<0.034; III vs IV p<0.041; except II vs III p=0.281), patients with lymph node (N0 vs N1 p<0.0389) or distant (M0 vs. M1 p<0.0388) metastases and significantly lower in patients with well differentiated tumors (G1 vs G2 p<0.0272). The serum levels of soluble FasL were not related to gender, age, tumor size, T-stage, tobacco smoking and history of chronic alcohol intake. The survival difference between pretreatment high and low level of sFasL in surgery and chemio- and/or radiotherapy group was not statistically significant (p=0.525; p=0.840). Our results indicate that elevated serum sFasL levels might be associated with a disease progression in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Medical University of Bialystok, Poland. miroslaw@cksr.ac.bialystok.pl
authors.forename: Miroslaw
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kozlowski
authors.forename: Oksana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kowalczuk
authors.forename: Anetta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sulewska
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dziegielewski
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lapuc
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Laudanski
authors.forename: Wieslawa
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Niklinska
authors.forename: Lech
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chyczewski
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Niklinski
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laudanski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D053222:Fas Ligand Protein / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012995:Solubility; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D053222:Fas Ligand Protein