Overexpression of Ets-like protein 1 in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

AIM： TO study the expression pattern of Ets-like protein 1 （Elk-1） in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma （ESCC） and to analyze its relat：ionship with clinicopathologic parameters. METHODS： The expression of Elk-1 in fresh esophageal cancer tissues and their corresponding normal mucosae was detected immunohistochemically （IHC） by means of tissue microarray （TMA）. Its correlation with clinical characteristics was evaluated and analyzed by-univariate analysis. All statistical analyses were performed by SPSS version 13.0. RESULTS： Expression level of transcription factor Elk-1 increased in 78.5% （84/107） ESCC tissues compared with their matched normal esophageal epithelium. However, the expression of Elk-1 did not show any obvious correlation with degree of differentiation of esophageal carcinoma （in well-differentiated, moderately-differentiated and poorly-differentiated tumors, the increased expression was 7/8, 60/74, and 19/25, respectively, P 〉 0.05）. Moreover, no obvious correlation was found with lymph node metastasis and depth of invasion. CONCLUSION： Increased expression of transcription factor Elk-1 may play an important role in esophageal carcinogenesis.