Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul;10(7):4023-4031.
doi: 10.21037/jtd.2018.06.26.

Prognostic value of immunohistochemical factors in esophageal small cell carcinoma (ESCC): analysis of clinicopathologic features of 73 patients

Yigong Zhang  1 , Cong Li  2 , Ming Chen  2
Affiliations

Prognostic value of immunohistochemical factors in esophageal small cell carcinoma (ESCC): analysis of clinicopathologic features of 73 patients

Yigong Zhang et al. J Thorac Dis. 2018 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Esophageal small cell carcinoma (ESCC) is an aggressive disease with poor prognosis. This study sought to describe immunohistochemical (IHC) and clinicopathological features of patients with ESCC, and to clarify how the utilization of different marker combination affects prognostic outcome.

Methods: The paraffin-embedded ESCC samples of 73 patients were immunohistochemically analyzed of neuron specific enolase (NSE), chromogranin A (CgA), synaptophysin (Syn) and thyroid transcriptional factor-1 (TTF-1). The positivity of these factors and their correlation with clinical characteristics was described. The relation between positive expression of them and survival was also analyzed.

Results: Immunological reactivity of the samples was Syn 68.5%, TTF-1 49.3%, NSE 90.4%, CgA 43.8%. There were 18 patients with 4 biomarkers positive (24.7%), 24 patients with 3 biomarkers positive (32.9%), 14 patients with 2 biomarkers positive (19.2%) and 12 patients with only 1 biomarker positive (16.4%). Five cases (6.8%) were all negative. The 2- and 3-year survivals were 24.8% and 19.9%, respectively. The mOS of patients without expression of four factors was significant worse than those with at least one factor of positive expression (6.1 vs. 15.3 months, P=0.002).

Conclusions: Patients with ESCC have a poor prognosis. The positive labeling of Syn, CgA, NSE and TTF-1 implicated their favourable prognostic value trend. These factors or their combination might serve as useful markers in prognostic evaluation.

Keywords: Esophageal carcinoma; immunohistochemistry; prognosis; small cell carcinoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Histopathological appearance of ESCC in biopsy specimen before treatment. Positive protein expression of (A) NSE, (B) Syn, (C) CgA, and (D) TTF-1. [A, NSE, 100×; B, Syn, 100×; C, CgA, 100×; D, TTF-1, 100×; E, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, magnification 40×; F, H&E staining, 100×]. ESCC, esophageal small cell carcinoma; NSE, neuron specific enolase; Syn, synaptophysin; CgA, chromogranin A; TTF-1, thyroid transcriptional factor-1.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall survival for patients with ESCC according to gene protein expression. (A) The CgA-positive patients (n=32) displayed a better median OS than the CgA-negative patients (n=41) (15.5 vs. 10.5 months, P=0.275); (B) the NSE-positive patients (n=66) displayed a better median OS than the NSE negative patients (n=7) (15.3 vs. 6.1 months, P=0.170); (C) the Syn-positive patients (n=50) displayed a better median OS than the Syn-negative patients (n=23) (14.5 vs. 12.6 months, P =0.676); (D) the TTF-1-positive patients (n=36) displayed a better median OS than the TTF-1-negative patients (n=37) (17.1 vs. 9.5 months, P=0.059); (E) the median OS of patients without expression of four factors (negative group) was significant worse than those with at least one factor of positive expression (positive group) (6.1 vs. 15.3 months, P=0.002). ESCC, esophageal small cell carcinoma; CgA, chromogranin A; OS, Overall survival; NSE, neuron specific enolase; Syn, synaptophysin; TTF-1, thyroid transcriptional factor-1.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Vos B, Rozema T, Miller RC, et al. Small cell carcinoma of the esophagus: a multicentre Rare Cancer Network study. Dis Esophagus 2011;24:258-64. 10.1111/j.1442-2050.2010.01133.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hosokawa A, Shimada Y, Matsumura Y, et al. Small cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Analysis of 14 cases and literature review. Hepatogastroenterology 2005;52:1738-41. - PubMed
    1. Chen SB, Yang JS, Yang WP, et al. Treatment and prognosis of limited disease primary small cell carcinoma of esophagus. Dis Esophagus 2011;24:114-9. 10.1111/j.1442-2050.2010.01112.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yun JP, Zhang MF, Hou JH, et al. Primary small cell carcinoma of the esophagus: clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features of 21 cases. BMC Cancer 2007;7:38. 10.1186/1471-2407-7-38 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Li AF, Li AC, Hsu CY, et al. Small cell carcinomas in gastrointestinal tract: immunohistochemical and clinicopathological features. J Clin Pathol 2010;63:620-5. 10.1136/jcp.2010.077024 - DOI - PubMed