Clinicopathological significance of wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY 2015;
8:3045-3053. [PMID:
26045816 PMCID:
PMC4440125]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2015] [Accepted: 02/26/2015] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND/AIM
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors. It has been reported that Wnt signaling pathway plays an important role in Esophageal Cancer progression, metastasis and invasion. However the clinicopathological significance of Wnt2, GSK3β, and β-catenin in ESCC has been little reported. In the present study, the aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic and prognosis roles of Wnt2, GSK3β, and β-catenin in ESCC tissue.
METHODS
265 ESCC samples were analyzed by immunohistochemistry using Wnt2, GSK3β, and β-catenin antibodies. Then, correlation of Wnt2, GSK3β, and β-catenin expression with clinicopathological features and prognosis of ESCC patients was statistically analyzed.
RESULTS
Cytoplasmic Wnt2 overexpression was detected in 55.5% (147 of 265) ESCCs, which was significantly correlated with the degree of differentiation (P=0.031). Cytoplasmic GSK3β overexpression was detected in 7.2% (19 of 265) ESCCs, and aberrant β-catenin expression was identified in 54.3% (144 of 265) of ESCCs. The positive rate of Wnt2 significantly increased with the malignant degree of Kazak ESCC patients. The aberrant β-catenin expression in GSK3β-negative ESCC was significantly associated with the ethnic, tumor size, tumor location, degree of differentiation, AJCC stage, lymph node status. Furthermore, the expression of β-catenin implicated the ethnic difference (P=0.019). In Kaplan-Meier curve analysis, no significant correlation was observed between the expression of Wnt2, GSK3β, β-catenin and the poor prognosis of ESCCs.
CONCLUSION
The aberrant β-catenin expression could be an adverse underlying factor in carcinogenesis and progression of ESCC. There was a different statistical signification for β-catenin in Kazakhs to compare with Hans.
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