Expression of FOXP3 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma relating to the clinical data

Abstract

Forkhead box protein 3 (FOXP3) has been studied as a biomarker in many human malignancies recently. But in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) the studies are limited. In this study, expression of FOXP3 in ESCC tissue was evaluated in relation to the clinical data. Detection of FOXP3 mRNA was made by using quantitative real-time PCR while protein expression was assessed by immunocytochemistry (n = 112). The results were correlated to the clinical data including age, gender, carcinoma size, carcinoma differentiation, lymphatic invasion and pathological stage. A significantly higher FOXP3 expression in tumors was confirmed than in normal-appearing mucosa. The FOXP3 mRNA and protein expressions were higher in advanced stages (stage II B and III) than in early stages (stage I and stage II A). A significantly higher FOXP3 expression in tumors with lymph node metastasis was also confirmed than in those without lymph node metastasis. No significant correlation was found in age, gender, carcinoma size, or carcinoma differentiation. These results suggest that expression of FOXP3 was higher in ESCC tissue and was closely correlated to lymphatic invasion and pathological stage. It may imply that FOXP3 might play an important role in esophageal carcinoma progression.

Quantification of tumor infiltrating Foxp3+ regulatory T cells enables the identification of high-risk patients for developing synchronous cancers over upper aerodigestive tract

“…The accumulation of Tregs can subsequently inhibit the host antitumor immune response, via cell-cell contact or secreting immunosuppressive cytokines, such as IL-10, IL-35 or TGF-b [15,19,22,23]. However, their clinical significances in SCC of the UADT are still inconclusive [24][25][26]. Accordingly, this study validated whether the regulatory T cells involved in the cancer-related immunosuppression can participate in the field cancerization phenomenon in SCC of UADT.…”

CD8+/FOXP3+ Ratio and PD-L1 Expression Associated With Survival in pT3N0M0 Stage Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer

“…Inconsistent results concerning regulatory T cells (Tregs), defined in this study as forkhead box protein 3 (FOXP3)+ T cells (FOXP3+ TILs), have also been reported in ESCC [6,8]. Still, multiple studies associated TILs with clinicopathological factors such as survival, response to neoadjuvant therapy and even tumor stage in Research Paper www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget ESCC [6,7,9]. Along with TIL densities, TIL-tumor cell interactions have been increasingly emphasized.…”

FOXP3 expression in tumor cells and its role in cancer progression

“…In this regard, it has been demonstrated that gastric carcinoma cells might have a Treg-like activity, which would allow them to escape from immune surveillance, thereby resulting in cancer progression (Yoshii et al, 2012). A correlation between FOXP3 expression and lymph node metastases incidence was also reported for esophageal squamous carcinoma (Xue et al, 2010), where FOXP3 mRNA and protein expression was not only higher in tumors than in normal mucosa, but also higher in advanced stages than in early stages. FOXP3 negative patients experienced significantly better overall survival than the FOXP3-overexpressing group.…”