Korean J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg.  2008 Feb;41(1):74-81.

Independent Prognostic Value of the Fascin Expression in Patients with Esophageal Cancer

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Dong-A University Hospital, College of Medicine, Dong-A University, Korea.
  • 2Department of Pathology, Dong-A University Hospital, College of Medicine, Dong-A University, Korea. msroh@dau.ac.kr

Abstract

Backgrond: Fascin is an actin-bundling protein that induces membrane protrusions and it increases cell motility in various transformed cells. Esophageal cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, and it exhibits extensive local invasion or frequent regional lymph node metastasis even after curative surgery. We investigate the expression of fascin by performing immunohistochemistry to evaluate the clinical characteristics and prognostic significance of its expression in esophageal cancer patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Immunochemistry for fascin was performed on 76 tumor samples from 76 patients who underwent esophageal cancer operations. The expression levels of fascin in the 76 esophageal cancer tissues were compared with those in the corresponding normal esophageal epithelium. The fascin-positive samples were defined as those showing more than 75% of fascin-positive cells. RESULT: Overall, a fascin positive expression was detected in 39 (51.3%) out of the total 76 cases. The tumors with positive fascin expression tended to more frequently show a higher stage (p=0.030), and a higher T-factor (p=0.031). The prognosis of the fascin negative group was significantly better than that of the fascin positive group (p=0.004). Multivariate analysis revealed that lymphovascular invasion and the fascin expression were independent prognostic factors.
CONCLUSION
Fascin was expressed in 51.3% of the esophageal cancer tissues, and a positive expression of fascin was associated with more advanced tumor progression and recurrence. Our study suggests that the fascin expression may be an independent prognostic factor for an unfavorable clinical course for those patients suffering with esophageal cancer.

Keyword

Esophageal neoplasms; Immunohistochemistry; Neoplasm proteins; Neoplasm marker

MeSH Terms

Carrier Proteins
Cell Movement
Epithelium
Esophageal Neoplasms
Humans
Immunochemistry
Immunohistochemistry
Lymph Nodes
Membranes
Microfilament Proteins
Multivariate Analysis
Neoplasm Metastasis
Neoplasm Proteins
Prognosis
Recurrence
Stress, Psychological
Carrier Proteins
Microfilament Proteins
Neoplasm Proteins
Full Text Links
  • KJTCS
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr