ABSTRACT
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is a common malignancy in the Asia-Pacific region， especially in China， where the morbidity remains high in spite of the improved overall survival due to advances in medical technology. Immunotherapy becomes a hot spot in recent tumor research when it has provided significant survival benefits in patients with advanced malignant tumors， such as lung cancer， breast cancer， colon cancer， etc. In esophageal squamous cell carcinoma， immunotherapy promotes survival benefit as well. However， because of the complex and changeable biological functions and gene expression regulation of malignant tumors， the conclusions based on a single-omics analysis are often incomprehensive. Currently， most of the immune-related studies on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma are still confined to a single-omics study like genomics， with limitations and one-sidedness. Since multi-omics analysis helps us better understand tumors from a wider and deeper perspective， this review explores and summarizes immune-related features of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma from a multi-omics perspective.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe Notch1 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and investigate its relation with microvascular angiogenesis in the tumor.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Tissue slices of 40 cases ESCC (cancer group) and 8 cases normal esophagus tissues (normal group) were obtained to analyze the expression of Notch1 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) using immunohistochemistry and estimate the microvessel density (MVD) in the tumor.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Notch1 expression was significantly lower in the cancer group than in the normal group (P<0.05). In the cancer group, Notch1 expression was higher in highly differentiated than in poorly differentiated tumors (P<0.05) regardless of tumor infiltration or lymph nodes metastasis (P>0.05). VEGF expression and MVD were significantly higher in cancer group than in normal group, and showed significant differences between tumors with different differentiation degrees, infiltration and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that Notch1 expression was inversely correlated to VEGF expression.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Notch1 may be an anti-oncogene in ESCC and affects cell differentiation in early stage of the malignancy. Abnormally low expression of Notch1 in ESCC may be one of the upstream factors to induce high expression of VEGF and increased MVD. The Notch1 pathway might play a key role in microvascular angiogenesis in ESCC.</p>