| Summary: | 碩士 === 中國醫藥大學 === 臨床醫學研究所碩士班 === 99 === Introduction
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the malignancies which exhibited poor prognosis. It ranked 8th cancer-related death in Taiwan. To improve the outcome, it is necessary and important to understand the molecular mechanism of this cancer. A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase (ADAMs) are type I transmembrane protein. Many reports have documented that several ADAMs differently express in various tumor entities and partial convey prognostic information. The over-expression of ADAM-9 was found in the patients with lung, kidney, prostate cancer. However, the relationship between expression of ADAM-9 in ESCC patient was not clear. The aims of the present study is to examine the expression of ADAM-9 in ESCC patients and to investigate its prognostic relevance by immunohistochemical analyse.
Methods
88 patients with ESCC received esophagectomy between 2000 and 2009 were enrolled. The expression profile of ADAM-9 in association with the clinicopathological factors was determined by immunohistochemical stain. The prognostic value was investigated by comparing the clinicopathological features and ADAM-9 staining intensities.
Results
The results showed ADAM-9 staining intensity was: 44 (50%) negative, 16 (18.1%) weak, 14 (15.9%) moderate, 11 (12.5%) strong and 3 (3.5%) very strong. ADAM-9 was not detected in tumor adjacent normal esophageal tissue. The ADAM-9 protein expression was not significantly associated with age, pT status, pN status, tumor grade, smoking, betel nut chewing, drinking, tumor location and pathological stages. However, it was significantly associated with pM status (P=0.02). Using univariate analysis (Kaplan-Meier) of patient survival, higher expression of ADAM-9 in ESCC was not significantly associated with shorten survival times.
Conclusion
To our knowledge, this is the first report exam ADAM-9 in ESCC patients. Expression of ADAM-9 in ESCC tissue is consistent with other cancer entities. Based on our results, ADAM-9 protein expression might serve as predictive marker for ESCC metastasis. Further studies are needed to explore the pathophysiological function of ADAM-9 in the advanced esophageal cancer.
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