Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is the sixth most lethal cancer worldwide and the
fourth most lethal cancer in China. Tissue-specific transplantation antigen P35B codifies
the enzyme GDP-d-mannose-4,6-dehydratase, which participates in the biosynthesis
of GDP-l-fucose. GDP-l-fucose is an important substrate involved in the
biosynthesis of many glycoproteins. Cancer cells are often accompanied by the changes in
glycoprotein structure, which affects the adhesion, invasion, and metastasis of cells. It
is not clear whether tissue-specific transplantation antigen P35B has any effect on the
development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. We used an immunohistochemical method
to assess the expression of tissue-specific transplantation antigen P35B in 104 esophageal
squamous cell carcinoma samples. The results showed tissue-specific transplantation
antigen P35B expression was associated with some clinical features in patients, such as
age (P = .017), clinical stage (P = .010), and lymph
node metastasis (P = .043). Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test
showed that patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma having high tissue-specific
transplantation antigen P35B expression had a worse prognosis compared to the patients
with low expression (P = .048). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards
regression model showed that high expression of tissue-specific transplantation antigen
P35B could predict poor prognosis for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
independently. In conclusion, abnormal fucosylation might participate in the progress of
esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and tissue-specific transplantation antigen P35B may
serve as a novel biomarker for prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell
carcinoma.