Expression and clinicopathological significance of extracellular matrix remodeling markers in esophageal squamous carcinoma

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a common malignancy of the gastrointestinal tract with a single therapeutic option and a lack of effective clinical therapeutic biomarkers.Extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling plays a pro-carcinogenic role in a variety of malignancies, but its role in esophageal squamous carcinoma remains to be elucidated.In this study, we examined the expression levels of ECM remodelling markers in 71 pairs of esophageal squamous carcinoma tissues and normal tissues adjacent to the carcinoma using immunohistochemical staining, and analysed their relationship with clinicopathological features and prognosis.The results suggested that extracellular matrix remodelling markers (Integrin αV, Fibronectin, MMP9) were abnormally highly expressed in esophageal squamous carcinoma tissues.There was a statistically significant difference between the positive expression of ECM remodelling and the TNM stage of esophageal squamous carcinoma, and there was no statistically significant correlation with age, gender and carcinoembryonic antigen expression, differentiation degree, T stage and lymph node metastasis.Overall survival rate and overall survival time were significantly lower in patients with positive ECM remodelling expression, which was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis of esophageal squamous carcinoma.