The expression and prognostic significance of Mucin 13 and Mucin 20 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND

Mucin 13 (MUC13) and Mucin 20 (MUC20) are high molecular weight transmembrane O-linked glycoprotein secreted by epithelium and are widely overexpressed in epithelial tumor cells. Previously, it has been reported that MUC13 and MUC20 were prognostic molecular biomarkers of some epithelial tumors, but few has studied the relations between MUC13 or MUC20 expression and the prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Thus, the aim of our study was to explore this issue.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expressions of MUC13 and MUC20 in 186 patients with ESCC who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery. We analyzed the correlations between MUC13 or MUC20 expression and long-term survival of these patients.

RESULTS

The expression of MUC13 and MUC20 in ESCC mainly occurred in the cytoplasm. Among the 186 subjects, 53.8% had high MUC13 expression and 38.2% had high MUC20 expression. Univariate analysis showed that neither MUC13 nor MUC20 was significantly associated with long-term survival. When combining expression of MUC13 with MUC20, we found that the median survival time of patients with low MUC13/high MUC20 expression was significantly shorter than that of patients with high MUC13/low MUC20 expression (27.7  months vs. 59.5 months, P = 0.021). Multivariate analysis showed that combination of MUC13/MUC20 expression was an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratios = 0.531, 95% confidence interval: 0.299-0.944, P = 0.031).

CONCLUSION

A combination of MUC13/MUC20 expression was a potential prognostic marker for patients with ESCC, who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery.