ABSTRACT
Objective:To analyze the expression and correlation of programmed death receptor ligand 1 (PD-L1) and matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) in elderly esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, in order to provide an effective basis for early disease diagnosis, treatment plan formulation and prognosis evaluation of elderly patients with esophageal cancer.Methods:The clinical data of 83 elderly patients with esophageal squamous carcinoma who admitted in Qinghai Provincial Traffic Hospital from October 2018 to October 2019 were retrospectively analyzed and included in the esophageal squamous carcinoma group. Another 46 patients with para-carcinoma tissue were included in the para-carcinoma group. The immunohistochemistry was used to compare the positive rate of PD-L1 and MMP-3 expression in the two groups of tissues, and the relationship between PD-L1 and MMP-3 expression in esophageal squamous carcinoma tissues and clinical pathology was explored. Bivariate Pearson correlation test was used to analyze the correlation between the two and the clinical pathological features of elderly patients with esophageal squamous carcinoma.Results:The positive expression rates of PD-L1 and MMP-3 in the esophageal squamous carcinoma group (55.42%, 67.47%) were higher than those in the para-carcinoma group (23.91%, 30.43%) ( P<0.05); Pearson correlation analysis found that PD-L1 expression was positively correlated with the differentiated degree of esophageal squamous carcinoma ( r=0.449, P<0.001), and MMP-3 expression was positively correlated with the infiltration degree of esophageal squamous carcinoma, tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage, and lymph node metastasis ( r=0.255, 0.367, 0.361, P=0.020, 0.001, 0.001). Conclusions:PD-L1 and MMP-3 are highly expressed in elderly esophageal squamous carcinoma. PD-L1 expression can indicate the degree of differentiation of esophageal squamous carcinoma, and MMP-3 expression can indicate different infiltration degrees of esophageal squamous carcinoma, TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis. PD-L1 and MMP-3 can be used as clinical markers for the development of esophageal squamous carcinoma treatment plans and prognostic evaluation.