Research Advance of E-cadherin, P21 and COX-2: prognostic role in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC) is a common malignancy in china, and TNM staging is the standard staging system for ESCC. However, in clinical practice, patients' prognosis is not always consistent with the staging. This phenomenon may be attributed from the fact that the current limitation and imperfect of the TNM staging system, and besides, another possible reason might be that some prognostic factors for ESCC other than TNM descriptors may exist. Among all the prognostic factors for ESCC, molecular biomarkers received widely concern. We searched the literatures and identified 12 molecular biomarkers that received the most concern and validated them in our single surgeon team. The results showed that only P21, COX-2 and E-cadherin were significant prognostic factors for ESCC in this series. Therefore, in the current study, we reviewed the literature regarding the prognostic significance of the above mentioned three biomarkers for clinical reference.