The role of prostaglandin E receptor 2 and epidermal growth factor receptor in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients with (pN+) regional lymph node metastasis

Abstract

Background To find the relationship between prostaglandin E receptor 2 (EP 2 ) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients with regional lymph nodes metastasis (pN+) who had undergone curative resection, and to analyze them in the role of judging prognosis. Methods Sixty-three patients with ESCC who underwent attempted curative esophagectomy with lymph node metastasis were collected. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to analyse the expression of EP 2 and EGFR in tumor tissues. We analyzed the relationship between the two markers. Furthermore, we analyzed the role of EP 2 and EGFR in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Results The expression rate of EP 2 and EGFR in this study were 73.0%, 85.7%, respectively. And the EP 2 status was closely related with the expression of EGFR in tumor tissues (χ 2 =0.260, P=0.011). The patients with EP 2 or EGFR positive expression had a shorter DFS and OS than the negative group. Further analysis found EGFR is an important prognostic factor for DFS and OS (P<0.001), the expression of EP 2 was related with PFS (P=0.048), but it was not an independent influencing factors for OS (P>0.05). Conclusions The expression of EP 2 and EGFR were high in tumor tissues of (pN+) ESCC, and they are playing a key role in the prognosis of ESCC patients with local lymph node metastases.