RESUMO
Objective:To investigate the correlation between the expression levels of STMN1, BubR1, bcl-2 and Bad and the chemotherapy effect of paclitaxel-containing regimen in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).Methods:The clinical data of ESCC patients who received paclitaxel-containing chemotherapy at Fenyang Hospital Affiliated to Shanxi Medical University from September 2016 to June 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 59 cases received maintenance chemotherapy and 27 cases received surgery after 3 courses of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The expression levels of STMN1, BubR1, bcl-2 and Bad in tumor tissues before chemotherapy were detected by immunohistochemistry. The imaging efficacy after 3 courses of chemotherapy and pathological efficacy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy were evaluated. The imaging efficacy, pathological efficacy and progression-free survival (PFS) were compared between the high expression group and the low expression group of each protein.Results:The proportion of patients with stage Ⅳ (46.3%, 19/41), the proportion of patients with low differentiation (22%, 9/41) and the incidence of lymph node metastasis (95.1%, 39/41) in STMN1 high expression group were higher than those in STMN1 low expression group (17.8%, 8/45; 4.4%, 2/45; 64.4%, 29/45), and the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). The proportion of patients with stage Ⅳ in Bad high expression group was lower than that in Bad low expression group, and the difference was statistically significant ( P < 0.05). In the evaluation of imaging efficacy, the chemotherapy sensitivity rates in STMN1 and BubR1 high expression groups (29.3%, 12/41; 37.9%, 22/58) were lower than those in STMN1 and BubR1 low expression groups (75.6%, 34/45; 85.7%, 24/28), and the chemotherapy sensitivity rate of patients in Bad high expression group (65.9%, 27/41) was higher than that in Bad low expression group (42.2%, 19/45), and the difference was statistically significant (all P < 0.05). There was no statistical correlation between bcl-2 expression and chemotherapy sensitivity rate ( P > 0.05). In the evaluation of pathological efficacy, the proportion of patients with tumor regression grade (TRG) score 0-1 after neoadjuvant therapy in STMN1 high expression group (27.3%, 3/11) was lower than that in STMN1 low expression group (75.0%, 12/16), and the difference was statistically significant ( P = 0.022). There were no statistical differences in the proportions of patients with TRG score 0-1 after neoadjuvant therapy between high and low expression groups of BubR1, bcl-2 and Bad (all P > 0.05). The PFS rate was 15.2% (9/59) for patients received maintenance chemotherapy, and the median PFS time was 6 months. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that PFS in STMN1 low expression group was better than that in STMN1 low expression group ( χ2 = 12.90, P < 0.001). PFS in BubR1 low expression group was better than that in BubR1 high expression ( χ2 =12.04, P < 0.001). PFS in Bad high expression group was better than that in Bad low expression group ( χ2 =9.69, P = 0.004). There was no statistical difference in PFS between high and low bcl-2 expression groups ( χ2 =1.43, P = 0.320). Conclusions:ESCC patients with low expression of STMN1, low expression of BubR1 and high expression of Bad have better chemotherapy effect after receiving paclitaxel-containing regimen, but there is no correlation between bcl-2 expression and chemotherapy efficacy.