Abstract
Background. Recent studies have shown that the aberrant expression of IFITM3 is implicated in the lymph node metastasis of many malignancies. Our research aimed to investigate the expression of IFITM3 in pathological N0 (pN0) esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and its relationship with lymph node metastatic recurrence.Methods. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to examine the expression profile of IFITM3 in 104 pairs of samples. Each pair consisted of ESCC tissue and its adjacent normal mucosa (ANM). This aberrant expression was verified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with 20 tumor specimens with strong immunostaining and their mucosal tissues. In addition, 20 samples of low expression tissues and their ANMs were evaluated. Moreover, the correlations between the IFITM3 expression level and the clinicopathological variables, recurrence risk and overall survival (OS) of patients were analyzed.Results. Both IHC and RT-PCR demonstrated that the IFITM3 expression level was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in ANM. Statistical analysis showed a significant correlation of IFITM3 expression with the T status of esophageal cancer (p = 0.015). In addition, IFITM3 overexpression was demonstrated to be not only an important risk factor of lymphatic metastatic recurrence but a significant prognostic factor in pN0 ESCC (p < 0.005).Conclusions. Even pN0 ESCC patients will still experience lymphatic metastatic recurrence. The IFITM3 gene could be a predictor of lymphatic metastatic recurrence in pN0 ESCC after Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy.
Highlights
Esophageal carcinoma (EC) is the sixth leading cause of mortality among various malignant tumors worldwide
We aimed to explore whether the Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) gene can predict lymphatic metastatic recurrence in pathological N0 (pN0) esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC)
According to the criteria of immunohistochemical score (IHS), we divided all the specimens into two groups: 59 cases (56.7%) were categorized as the overexpression group (Fig. 1C) and 45 cases (43.3%) were in the low expression group (Fig. 1B). To verify this aberrant upregulation of IFITM3, we examined the mRNA expression level by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with 20 pairs of specimens randomly selected from the overexpression group and 20 pairs of tissues that originated from the low expression group
Summary
Esophageal carcinoma (EC) is the sixth leading cause of mortality among various malignant tumors worldwide. To improve the long-term survival of ESCC patients, it is of great clinical significance to control locoregional lymph node metastatic recurrence after surgery. Our research aimed to investigate the expression of IFITM3 in pathological N0 (pN0) esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and its relationship with lymph node metastatic recurrence. Each pair consisted of ESCC tissue and its adjacent normal mucosa (ANM) This aberrant expression was verified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with 20 tumor specimens with strong immunostaining and their mucosal tissues. Both IHC and RT-PCR demonstrated that the IFITM3 expression level was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in ANM. IFITM3 overexpression was demonstrated to be an important risk factor of lymphatic metastatic recurrence but a significant prognostic factor in pN0 ESCC (p < 0.005). The IFITM3 gene could be a predictor of lymphatic metastatic recurrence in pN0 ESCC after Ivor-Lewis esophagectomy
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