Overexpression of FXYD-3 is involved in the tumorigenesis and development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

• Objective : To investigate the association of FXYD-3 expression with clinicopathological variables and PINCH in patients with ESCC. Patients and methods : Expression of FXYD-3 protein was immunohistochemically examined in normal esophageal mucous (n = 20) and ESCC (n = 64).   Results : Expression of FXYD-3 in the cytoplasm markedly increased from normal esophageal epithelial cells to primary ESCC ( p = 0.001). The expression of FXYD-3 was correlated with TNM stages and depth of tumour invasion. Furthermore, the cases with lymph node metastasis tended to show a higher frequency of positive expression than those without metastasis ( p = 0.086), and FXYD-3 expression tended to be positively related to the expression of PINCH (p = 0.063). Moreover, the cases positive for both proteins had the highest frequency of lymph node metastasis (p = 0.001). However, FXYD-3 expression was not correlated with patient , s gender (p = 0.847), age (p = 0.876), tumour location (p = 0.279), size (p = 0.771) , grade of differentiation (p = 0.279), and survival (p = 0.113). Conclusion : overexpression of FXYD-3 in the cytoplasm may play an important role in the tumourigenesis and development in the human ESCC, particularly in combination with PINCH expression.

Subject headings

Medical and Health Sciences  (hsv)

Medicin och hälsovetenskap  (hsv)