Expression of Osteopontin Protein in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
摘要
This study aimed to examine (1) the protein expression of osteopontin (OPN) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissue and (2) whether OPN could be used to predict ESCC patients' disease severity and prognosis. In total, 54 newly-diagnosed ESCC patients who received eophagectomy were studied. OPN protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry method. The information of the patients' clinicopathologic characteristics was obtained by chart review. OPN protein overexpression was present in 37.0% (20/54) of tumor tissues and 13.0% (7/54) of normal tissues. It was obviously stronger in cancer part than the corresponding normal part in 35 pairs (64.8%) of ESCC tissues. There were no significant associations between OPN protein expressions and patient's cancer stage or survival. Our findings indicated that OPN was associated with the development of ESCC although it cannot predict patients' survival.