[Up-regulation of HOXA13 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma of stage IIa and its effect on the prognosis].

Objective: To investigate the expression of HOXA13 gene in stage-II(a esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC), and to evaluate its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis.

Methods: The expression of HOXA13 was examined by immunohistochemistry(IHC) in specimens from 39 patients with ESCC of stage-II(a, who underwent resection from 1995 to 2002. SPSS software was used to analyze the relationship between HOXA13 expression and clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients.

Results: The expression of HOXA13 protein was detected in ESCC tissue, and the positive rate was 61.5%. The median survival time of patients without HOXA13 expression(>72 months) was significantly longer than those with HOXA13 expression (24 months)( P=0.023). Multivariate analysis showed that HOXA13 expression was independent predictor of disease-free survival time of patients with ESCC.

Conclusion: The expression of HOXA13 can be detected in ESCC and is a negative independent predictor of disease-free survival, which implies that HOXA13 might play a role in ESSC, and may be used as a clinical tumor marker of ESCC.