Abstract:
Background and purpose: Chemokines play an important role in cancer occurrence and development. However, little about the function of CCL26 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is reported. This study was designed to observe and study the expression of chemokine CCL26 in ESCC tissues and to analyze their association with pathological features of ESCC. Methods: Expressions of chemokine CCL26 in 197 ESCC tissues and their corresponding paraneoplastic normal esophageal tissues were determined by tissue array and immunohistochemistry (IHC) technique, and its correlations to age, gender, lymph nodes metastasis, TNM stage, general classification and 5-year survival rate of ESCC patients were further analyzed. Results: ①CCL26 was expressed in both ESCC and paraneoplastic normal esophageal tissues. The expression of CCL26 in ESCC tissues was significantly higher than that in paraneoplastic normal esophageal tissues (61.8% vs 20.6%, P<0.05). ②The expression of CCL26 was correlated with lymph node metastasis, but not correlated with age, gender, tumor cell differentiation, and general classification (P>0.05). ③Survival analysis showed that the abnormal expression of CCL26 was associated with 5-year survival rate of patients with ESCC. The 5-year survival rate of ESCC patients with CCL26 positive expression was obviously lower than that of ESCC patients with CCL26 negative expression. Conclusion: CCL26 upexpression might play an important role in the progression and development of ESCC patients. The high level of CCL26 expression is correlated with lymph node metastasis and poor survival. Detection of CCL26 expression may have important prognostic values in ESCC patients.

Key words: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, CCL26, Tissue array, Immunohistochemistry, Prognosis