Search

Objective: To explore the expression of cyclophilin A (CypA) in esophageal tissues and its clinical significance., Method: Expression of CypA was detected in 236 esophageal cancer tissues and 236 normal tissues by using an immunohistochemical method, and the relationship between CypA expression and clinical outcomes was observed., Results: There were 166 patients with high expression of CypA (70.23%) and a higher expression in 69.3% of males and 73.3% in females. The CypA expression was irrelevant to age, tumor location, lymph node metastasis, and tumor differentiation degree. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis showed that the expression of CypA was associated with the prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma., Conclusion: The poor prognosis of esophageal cancer patients was associated with high expression of CypA.

Objective: Minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) has been widely applied for esophageal carcinoma treatment. Thoracoscope-assisted transthoracic esophagectomy (TATTE) and mediastinoscope-assisted transhiatal esophagectomy (MATHE) are two kinds of MIE. The objective of this study is to compare these two methods with respect to surgical safety and survival., Methods: Single-institution experience with MATHE and TATTE was analyzed to assess morbidity, adequacy of tumor clearance, and survival. A pair-matched case-control study was performed to compare 54 patients who underwent either MATHE or TATTE between July 2000 and December 2009. Patients were matched by age, sex, comorbidity, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), tumor location, and stage., Results: Statistically significant differences between the MATHE group and the TATTE group were: shorter operative time for MATHE (194.4 min) versus TATTE (228.1 min), less blood loss during operation in the TATTE group (142.6 ml) versus the MATHE group (214.6 ml), and more lymph nodes retrieved in the TATTE group (19.1 nodes) versus the MATHE group (11.4 nodes). There was no difference in survival between the groups., Conclusions: MATHE and TATTE are both technically feasible. TATTE can provide better visibility. TATTE has less blood loss compared with MATHE. More adequate tumor clearance in terms of lymph node dissection can be achieved with TATTE.

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common malignancies. Early diagnosis is critical for guiding the therapeutic management of ESCC. It is imperative to find more effective biomarkers of ESCC., Methods: To identify novel biomarkers for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), specimens from 10 patients with ESCC were subjected to a comparative proteomic analysis. The proteomic patterns of ESCC samples and normal esophageal epithelial tissues (NEETs) were compared using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. And differentially expressed proteins were identified using MALDI-TOF-MS/MS. For further identification of protein in selected spot, western blotting and immunohistochemistry were employed., Results: Twelve proteins were up-regulated and fifteen proteins were down-regulated in the ESCC samples compared with the NEET samples. Up-regulation of galectin-7 was further confirmed by western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, immunohistochemical staining of galectin-7 was performed on a tissue microarray containing ESCC samples (n = 50) and NEET samples (n = 10). The expression levels of galectin-7 were markedly higher in the ESCC samples than in the NEET samples (P = 0.012). In addition, tissue microarray analysis also showed that the expression level of galectin-7 was related to the differentiation of ESCC., Conclusions: The present proteomics analysis revealed that galectin-7 was highly expressed in ESCC tissues. The alteration in the expression of galectin-7 was confirmed using a tissue microarray. These findings suggest that galectin-7 could be used as a potential biomarker for ESCC.