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Prognostic impact and potential interaction of EGFR and c-Met in the progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

This study is to examine EGFR and c-Met variation in precancerous lesion, early esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and advanced ESCC and to explore their prognostic significance. EGFR and c-Met were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Of 158 endoscopy resection (ER) specimens, c-Met high expression and FISH positive were 44.9 and 12.6 %, respectively. EGFR high expression and FISH positive were 2.5 and 19.6 %, respectively. Of 84 surgical specimens, c-Met high expression and FISH positive were 50 and 8.3 %, respectively. EGFR high expression and FISH positive were 7.1 and 28.5 %, respectively. A significant correlation was observed between c-Met and EGFR FISH positive both in ER (P < 0.001) and surgical specimens (P = 0.029). Patients with EGFR high expression had poorer disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (P = 0.031 and P = 0.013) in c-Met high-expression group but not in c-Met low-expression group (P = 0.301 and P = 0.439). C-Met FISH positive did not represent a statistically significant adverse prognosis until 24 months later (P = 0.027 and 0.048). EGFR and c-Met might be involved in the tumorigenesis and development of ESCC. EGFR high expression has different prognostic significance in patients with differing c-Met expression status. C-Met FISH positive represent delayed prognostic factor.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the patients and their families who agreed to contribute to this research program. Our work was supported by Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, key developing disciplines (No.2015ZB0201).

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Correspondence to Lijie Tan or Yingyong Hou.

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The described experiments comply with the current laws of China.

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Haixing Wang and Dongxian Jiang contributed equally to this work.

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Wang, H., Jiang, D., Song, Q. et al. Prognostic impact and potential interaction of EGFR and c-Met in the progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Tumor Biol. 37, 9771–9779 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-015-4692-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-015-4692-4

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