微管不稳定蛋白在食管癌细胞和组织中的表达及意义

Low STMN1 is associated with better prognosis in Asian patients with esophageal cancers: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIM

The role of STMN1 in the development and progression of esophageal carcinoma is not yet determined. The present study aimed to systematically evaluate the correlation between STMN1 and prognosis of patients with esophageal carcinoma.

METHODS

Electronic databases including PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane library, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) were searched to identify studies evaluating the impact of STMN1 on the survival of esophageal cancer patients, without the language limitation. Two investigators screened the literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and evaluated the quality of the included studies. The combined analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software.

RESULTS

A total of eight studies, involving 1240 esophageal carcinoma patients, were included in this retrospective design. Meta-analysis showed that esophageal carcinoma patients with low STMN1 had a superior overall survival and disease-free survival than those with high expression of STMN1. Compared with the high expression of STMN1, the 5-year survival rate was significantly higher in patients with low level of STMN1. Patients with high STMN1 expression had a higher risk of experiencing clinical grade III-IV disease, lymph node metastasis, and tumor invasion than those with low STMN1.

CONCLUSION

STMN1 is an indicator for the prognosis of esophageal carcinoma patients.

Spiral CT and magnetic resonance imaging for staging of esophageal cancer

AIM: To assess the value of spiral computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in esophageal carcinoma tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging.

METHODS: One hundred esophageal cancer patients underwent spiral CT and MRI examinations. The imaging features of plain and contrast-enhanced CT and MRI of esophageal carcinoma were observed. Using the pathological result as the standard, the value of spiral CT and MRI in TNM staging of esophageal cancer was analyzed.

RESULTS: Pathological examinations revealed 81 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 16 cases of adenocarcinoma, and 3 cases of small cell undifferentiated carcinoma. Lesion length ranged from 20 mm to 11 mm, with an average value of 6.4 mm ± 2.1 mm. Sixty-eight patients had regional lymph node metastasis. Pathological TNM classification included 9 cases of T1 stage, 23 cases of T2 stage, 40 cases of T3 stage, 28 cases of T4 stage, 32 cases of N0 stage, and 68 cases of N1 stage. Spiral CT TNM classification included 6 cases of T1 stage, 13 cases of T2 stage, 47 cases of T3 stage, 34 cases of T4 stage, 52 cases of N0 stage, and 48 cases of N1 stage. MRI TNM classification included 8 cases of T1 stage, 26 cases of T2 stage, 41 cases of T3 stage, 25 cases of T4 stage, 35 cases of N0 stage, and 65 cases of N1 stage. The diagnostic sensitivity and accuracy of MRI for stages T1 and T2 esophageal cancer were significantly higher than those of spiral CT (P < 0.05). The specificity of MRI for diagnosis of stage N0 esophageal cancer was significantly higher than that of spiral CT, but the sensitivity was significantly lower than that of spiral CT (P < 0.05). In the diagnosis of stage N1 esophageal cancer, the diagnostic sensitivity of MRI was significantly higher than that of spiral CT (P < 0.05). The diagnostic accuracy of combined MRI and spiral CT for T stage and N stage was significantly better than that of either of the two modalities (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: MRI have high value in the diagnosis of stages T1 and T2 esophageal cancer, and combined application of CT and MRI in T staging and N staging is significantly better their single application.

Clinicopathologic significance of SH2B1 and RhoA expression in esophageal cancer

AIM: To detect the expression of SH2B1 and RhoA in esophageal cancer and to analyze their clinicopathologic significance.

METHODS: The expression of SH2B1 and RhoA in esophageal cancer tissues and normal tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS: The positive rates of SH2B1 and RhoA expression were significantly higher in esophageal cancer tissues than in the normal tissues (84.2% vs 33.6%, P = 0.028; 79.8% vs 22.4%, P = 0.022). SH2B1 and RhoA expression levels were correlated with depth of invasion, TNM stage and lymph node metastasis (all P < 0.05), but not with gender, age, tumor type or histological grade (all P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: High expression of SH2B1 and RhoA is detectable in esophageal cancer tissues. The expression of SH2B1 and RhoA has close associations with clinicopathologic characteristics of esophageal cancer.

Expression and phosphorylation of stathmin correlate with cell migration in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Microtubules play extensive roles in cellular processes, including cell motility. Stathmin is an important protein which destabilizes microtubules. The essential function of stathmin is closely associated with its phosphorylation status. Stathmin is overexpressed in many human cancers and has a significant relationship with clinical characteristics such as grade, tumor size and prognosis. We demonstrated that stathmin was overexpressed in ESCC tissues using both 2-DE and immunohistochemistry analysis. In addition, overexpression of stathmin was significantly correlated with histological grade in ESCC. However, no correlation was found with age, gender and lymph node metastasis. Knockdown of stathmin with siRNA impaired cell migration in KYSE30 and KYSE410 cells. When EC0156 cells were treated with paclitaxel, stathmin was stably phosphorylated and migration was impaired. These observations suggest that stathmin may have a more important function in ESCC development and migration. The present study provides further understanding of the importance of stathmin in ESCC therapy or diagnosis.