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Prognostic significance of phosphorylated RON in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

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Abstract

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the most common type of esophageal cancer. RON is a transmembrane receptor overexpressed in various cancers; however, the clinical significance of its phosphorylated form (pRON) is not fully deciphered. This report is the first to investigate the expression and clinical significance of pRON in human ESCC. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed an up-regulation of RON mRNA in 70% (7/10) of ESCC tissues when compared to the adjacent nontumor tissues. An overexpression of pRON protein was found in most of the ESCC cell lines studied (4/5) when compared to two non-neoplastic esophageal epithelial cells using immunoblot. In 64 ESCC tissues, pRON was localized at the cell membrane, cytoplasm and nucleus in 15 (23.4%), 63 (98.4%) and 61 (95.3%) cases using immunohistochemistry. Patients having high expression of cytoplasmic pRON significantly associated with shorter median survival when compared to those with low expression (25.41 months vs. 14.43 months), suggesting cytoplasmic pRON as a potential marker for poor prognosis in ESCC patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

    Marco K. C. Hui, Kenneth K. Y. Lai, Nikki P. Lee, Yvonne Chung, Leo C. Cheung & Simon Law

  2. Department of Pathology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

    Kwok Wah Chan & Gopesh Srivastava

  3. Department of Pharmacology and Surgery, National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore

    John M. Luk

  4. Department of Anatomy, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

    Sai Wah Tsao

  5. Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

    Johnny C. Tang

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  1. Marco K. C. Hui
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  2. Kenneth K. Y. Lai
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  11. Simon Law
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon Law.

Additional information

Marco K. C. Hui and Kenneth K. Y. Lai contributed equally to this work.

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12032_2011_112_MOESM1_ESM.tiff

Supplementary Figure 1. NLS in human RON protein. PSORT II was used to predict NLS in human RON protein, and five putative NLSs were located (underlined). Four of them were consecutive in the amino-terminal region, while one was found at the carboxyl-terminus. (TIFF 156 kb)

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Hui, M.K.C., Lai, K.K.Y., Chan, K.W. et al. Prognostic significance of phosphorylated RON in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Med Oncol 29, 1699–1706 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-011-0112-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-011-0112-9

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