P21 Gene Expression Evaluation in Esophageal Cancer Patients

Abstract

Background: Cancer is the third most common cause of death in Iran, and 30,000 Iranians lose their lives each year due to cancer. Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer and the sixth leading cause of death from cancer worldwide. It is reported that more than 80% of all deaths from esophageal cancer occur in developing countries. The p21 protein is encoded by WAF1/CIP1, a tumor suppressor gene located on chromosome 2.6 p21. This protein is known to be related to the cell cycle; p21 stimulation is a common mechanism of growth inhibition in different physiological conditions. Summary: The results indicated no significant difference in p21 gene expression between patients and controls (p > 0.05). Moreover, no significant difference was observed in p21 gene expression between males and females (p > 0.05). Key Message: It appears that p21 is not a specific tumor marker in Iranian esophageal cancer patients. Practical Implications: In this qualitative research work, for the first time, we investigated the p21 gene expression in esophageal cancer patients in Iran. For the present study, we randomly selected 15 paraffin-embedded esophageal cancer tissues and 15 paraffin-embedded normal esophageal samples collected from different medical centers in Zahedan and Kashan. RT-qPCR reactions were performed with three repetitions for the p21 gene and internal control (GAPDH) using the 2^-ΔΔCt (Livak) method for all samples. Results were analyzed using SPSS software.