title: Low expression of IGFBP-3 predicts poor prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: Previous studies have suggested that insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) acts as a tumor suppressor in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The present study was designed to investigate the clinical and prognostic significance of IGFBP-3 in ESCC patients. In this study, IGFBP-3 was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in paraffin-embedded tissues from 110 ESCC patients, of which 110 were from primary cancer sites and 56 from matched adjacent non-malignant sites. Differences in IGFBP-3 expression and clinical characteristics were compared by χ2 test. Correlations between prognostic outcomes and with IGFBP-3 expression were investigated using Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox proportional hazards model. Among adjacent non-malignant tissues, 83.9% of individual tissue staining was scored as either high for IGFBP-3. However, among ESCC cases, only 51.8% of the cancer tissues were scored as high IGFBP-3 expression. In addition, IGFBP-3 expression inversely correlated with pathological classification (P<0.05 for T, N, and M classifications) and clinical staging (P=0.006). Furthermore, patients with higher levels of IGFBP-3 had prolonged overall survival (P<0.001). In conclusion, reduced IGFBP-3 expression may be a risk factor for advanced clinicopathological classification and poor patient survival. These findings suggest that IGFBP-3 may serve as a useful marker for the prognostic evaluation of ESCC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, No 651, Dongfeng road east, Guangzhou, 510060, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Li-Ru
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Mu-Yan
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Yi-Ji
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Mian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.forename: Yi-Xin
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Meng-Zhong
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D000077277:Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D018972:Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3 / Q000032:analysis* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
chemical_list: C515497:IGFBP3 protein, human; D018972:Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3