Decreased expression of FBXW7 is correlated with poor prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

FBXW7 is a tumor suppressor gene that induces the degradation of positive cell-cycle regulators such as c-Myc, cyclin E, c-Jun and Notch. The loss of FBXW7 promotes cell-cycle progression and cell proliferation. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between FBXW7 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The expression of FBXW7 was quantified by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in 43 primary ESCCs and their paired normal esophageal mucosa in patients who had not received preoperative therapy. FBXW7 expression levels were significantly correlated with the progression of the cancer and with local invasiveness. In muscle-invasive tumor cases (T2-4), lymphatic invasive tumor cases and stage II-IV cases, FBXW7 expression levels were significantly decreased (P=0.0315, P=0.0336 and P=0.0289, respectively). Decreased expression of FBXW7 was correlated with poor prognosis (P=0.0255). In conclusion, this study examined the relationship between FBXW7 expression and tumor progression in ESCC. We suggest that FBXW7 is a molecular prognostic marker and can be used to elucidate the mechanism of carcinogenesis.