The alterations of cytokeratin and vimentin protein expressions in primary esophageal spindle cell carcinoma

作者：Xin Min Li, Xin Song, Xue Zhao, Shou Jia Hu, Rang Cheng, Shuang Lv, Dan Du, Xiangyang Zhang, Jian Lu, Jian Wei Ku, Dong Yun Zhang, Yao Zhang, Zong Min Fan, Lidong Wang · 发表于：BMC Cancer · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1186/s12885-018-4301-1 · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Esophageal Cancer Research and Treatment、Metastasis and carcinoma case studies、Skin and Cellular Biology Research

BACKGROUND: The accumulated evidence has indicated the diagnostic role of cytokeratin (CK) and vimentin protein immunoassay in primary esophageal spindle cell carcinoma (PESC), which is a rare malignant tumor with epithelial and spindle components. However, it is largely unknown for the expression of CK and vimentin in pathological changes and prognosis of PESC. METHODS: Eighty-two PESC patients were identified from the esophageal and gastric cardia cancer database established by Henan Key Laboratory for Esophageal Cancer Research of Zhengzhou University. We retrospectively evaluated CK and vimentin protein expressions in PESC. Clinicopathological features were examined by means of univariate and multivariate survival analyses. Furthermore, the co-expression value of cytokeratin and vimentin was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: The positive pan-cytokeratins AE1/AE3 (AE1/AE3 for short) staining was chiefly observed in cytoplasm of epithelial component tumor cells, with a positive detection rate of 85.4% (70/82). Interestingly, 19 cases showed AE1/AE3 positive staining both in epithelial and spindle components (23.2%). However, AE1/AE3 expression was not observed with any significant association with age, gender, tumor location, gross appearance, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. Furthermore, AE1/AE3 protein expression does not show any effect on survival. Similar results were observed for vimentin immunoassay. However, in comparison with a...