[Correlations between 14-3-3ε expression and clinicopathological factors and prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression of 14-3-3ε in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and relationship of 14-3-3ε and clinicopathological factors of ECSS patients.


METHODS
The 14-3-3ε expression in tumors and adjacent normal epithelia from 72 ESCC patients was detected by immunohistochemical staining. Correlations of 14-3-3ε expression or their subcellular localization and clinicopathological factors were analyzed using Chi-squared test. Survival curves were generated according to the Kaplan-Meier method, and the statistical analysis was performed by Log-rank test.


RESULTS
The expression of 14-3-3ε protein was significantly up-regulated in tumors with 77.8% positive and 27.8% strong positive staining, compared with paired adjacent normal epithelia with 43.1% positive and only 2.8% strong positive staining (P < 0.01). In a total of 56 positive staining tumors, 14-3-3ε was detected in cytoplasm of 37 (66.1%), in nucleus of 4 (7.1%), in both cytoplasm and nucleus of 15 (26.8%) cases. Whereas, in a total of 31 positive staining normal epithelia, 14-3-3ε was detected in cytoplasm of 0, in nucleus of 13 (41.9%), in both cytoplasm and nucleus of 18 (58.1%) cases (P < 0.01). Statistical analysis revealed that strong 14-3-3ε expression was correlated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.028) and lower 5-year survival (P = 0.018). The survival curves calculated by Kaplan-Meier method further showed that the patients with strong 14-3-3ε expression had a shorter survival than patients with negative or weak 14-3-3ε expression (Log-rank, P = 0.031). No correlation was found between subcellular localization of 14-3-3ε in tumor cells and clinicopathologic factors and prognosis of ESCC patients.


CONCLUSIONS
The 14-3-3ε expression is significantly up-regulated in ESCCs. It was usually located in cytoplasm of tumor cells, but nucleus of normal epithelia. Strong expression of 14-3-3ε in tumors is associated with lymph node metastasis and considered as an poor prognostic factor for ESCC.
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Cancer Institute and Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100021, China.
Feng-Wei
FW
Tan
Liang
L
Zhao
Kang
K
Shao
Zhao-Li
ZL
Chen
Jie
J
He
D002467:Cell Nucleus; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D015854:Up-Regulation