Mucin 1 expression correlation with lymph node metastasis and micrometastasis and poor prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinomas

Abstract

IntroductionLymph node metastasis (LNM) and lymph node micrometastasis (LNMM) are prognostic factors in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether mucin 1 expression detected by immunohistochemistry in lymph nodes correlates with LNM, LNMM and prognosis in ESCC patients.Material and methodsThere were 92 ESCC patients enrolled in the research, and 1382 lymph nodes were obtained from these 92 patients. All lymph nodes were immunohistochemically analyzed using an anticytokeratin and mucin 1 antibody cocktail.ResultsIn the pN1-2 patients’ group, 68 lymph nodes from 15 patients had tumor metastasis. All these 68 tumor metastatic lymph nodes were positive for mucin 1. Mucin 1 was detected in another 231 lymph nodes and among them, 3 (3/231 1.3%) lymph nodes from 2 (2/15 13.3%) patients were positive for mucin 1. In 77 pN0 patients, mucin 1 was detected in 1083 lymph nodes from the 77 patients; 17 (17/1083 1.6%) lymph nodes from 15 (15/77 19.5%) patients were positive for mucin 1. The 5-year survival rate was 39.1%, and it was significantly related to tumor invasion (pT, p < 0.05), lymph node metastasis (pN, p < 0.01), pTNM stage (p < 0.01) and mucin 1 expression (p < 0.01). Cox regression of multivariate analysis demonstrated that mucin 1 expression and pT were independent prognostic factors.ConclusionsMucin 1 expression was related to LNM and LNMM and poor prognosis in ESCC patients. Immunohistochemistry for mucin 1 can be applied for the detection of LNM and LNMM.