Expression of p53, p16 and cyclooxygenase-2 in esophageal cancer detected by microarray / 中华消化杂志

ABSTRACT

Objectives Esophageal cancer development and progression is driven by the accumulation of genetic changes. In this study, we used tissue microarray to survey the expression of p53, p16 and COX-2 in esophageal cancer progression and their clinical implication. Methods We tested p53, p16 and COX-2 proteins by immunohistochemistry and tissue microarray in 86 specimens from different stages of esophageal cancer and 40 specimens from adjacent non-cancer tissue. Results The expression of p53 and COX-2 was significantly higher in tumor tissue than that in non-tumor ones. As for the expression of pl6, no significant difference was found between tumor and adjacent tissue. An obvious relation was observed among p53, p16 and COX-2 expression that esophageal carcinogenesis was highly correlated with the positive expression of p53 or COX-2, however, no reciprocal relationship to neoplastic progression was recognized with p53, p16 and COX-2. Conclusion We observed that the tissue with the positive expression of p53 or COX-2 was more likely to develop esophageal cancer. Further work will verify the hypothesis that the expression level of p53 and COX-2 in biopsy specimen is applicable to predict early outset of esophageal cancer.