Predictive value of c-met for long-term mortality in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the correlation of c-met protein with the clinical staging and cell differentiation of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 100 patients with ESCC were enrolled were examined for expression of c-met protein using immunohistochemistry, and the patients in negative and positive c-met expression groups were compared for clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>s The 100 ESCC patients included 67 male and 33 female patients with a median age of 59 years; 49 of the patients were negative and 51 were positive for c-met expression. Positive c-met expression was significantly correlated with advanced TMN stages and lower tumor differentiation. Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that the median survival time of c-met-positive patients was significantly reduced compared with that of c-met-negative patients (30.9 vs 48.2 months, P<0.05). COX regression analysis showed that c-met was a independent risk factor for the overall survival of the patients (HR: 2.34, 95% CI: 1.63-4.54, P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>A positive expression of c-met protein is significantly correlated with an advanced TMN stage, lower tumor differentiation and a poor prognosis, and may serve as a indicator for predicting the prognosis of ESCC.</p>