ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the role of fascin, an actin bundling protein, in the development and progression of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and explore its association with the clinicopathologic characteristics and 5-year survival of the patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Using tissue array and immunohistochemistry, the expression of fascin was determined in 241 ESCC tissues and the corresponding normal esophageal mucosal tissues.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>ESCC tissues showed a significantly higher overexpression rate of fascin than the corresponding normal esophageal mucosal tissues (68.9% vs 15.5%, P<0.05). The overexpression of fascin was correlated to lymph node metastasis and TMN stage, but not to the patients' age, gender, tumor differentiation and general classification. Survival analysis showed that abnormal expression of fascin was associated with the 5-year survival rate of patients with ESCC.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The abnormal expression of fascin may play an important role in the progression of ESCC, and detection of fascin expression may have important prognostic values.</p>