The expression of[delta]-catenin in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its correlations with prognosis of patients

• Published in: Human pathology 2014-10, Vol.45 (10), p.2014
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jun-Yi, Bai, Chun-Ying, Bai, Yu-Qin, Zhang, Jing-Yi, Wu, Zhi-Yong, Wang, Shao-Hong, Xu, Xiu-E, Wu, Jian-Yi, Zhu, Ying, Rui, Yun, Li, En-Min, Xu, Li-Yan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Hypoxia; Medical prognosis; Metastasis; Mortality; Nervous system; Patients; Tumors
• ISSN: 0046-8177; 1532-8392
• DOI: 10.1016/j.humpath.2014.05.014

As a member of the catenin family, expression ofδ-catenin and its clinical implication in numerous tumors remain unclear. In the present study, expression ofδ-catenin in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and its correlations with patient prognosis were explored. We detected the expression ofδ-catenin, by immunohistochemistry, in ESCC tissues from 299 cases and analyzed the correlation betweenδ-catenin expression and patient clinicopathological features. Compared with a lack of expression in adjacent normal esophageal epithelium (0%, 0/47), the frequency ofδ-catenin protein was increased in ESCC tissues to 41.5% (124/299,P< .001) and expression correlated with TNM stage and lymph node metastasis (P= .025 and .019, respectively). Furthermore, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that patients with highδ-catenin expression had shorter survival than patients with low expression (P= .010), and multivariate Cox analysis revealed that highδ-catenin expression was also an independent prognostic factor (P= .001). In transwell assays, migration of ESCC cells was enhanced byδ-catenin overexpression, whereas proliferation of ESCC cells was unchanged. Together, our results suggest thatδ-catenin acts as an oncoprotein when overexpressed in ESCC, and its expression is associated with poor prognosis and malignant cell behavior.