Histopathological Evaluation of PYGO2 Expression in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

TL;DR

This study finds that PYGO2 protein is overexpressed in esophageal cancer and linked to tumor invasiveness, suggesting it could help diagnose or treat the disease.

Contribution

The study identifies PYGO2 as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for invasive esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Findings

PYGO2 overexpression was observed in 32% of ESCC tumor cells.

PYGO2 expression was significantly correlated with tumor invasion depth (P=0.021).

Abstract

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the world's deadliest cancer diseases. Deregulation of developmental signaling pathways such as Wnt/β-catenin is frequently implicated in a wide range of human cancers. The present study was designed to analyze the expression of the Pygopus2 (PYGO2) protein, the main co-activator of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, in ESCC tissues and evaluate its probable correlation with clinicopathological features of patients.

In this study, PYGO2 protein expression was assessed in tumors and margin normal tissues from 50 ESCC patients using immunohistochemical analysis, and its clinicopathological relevance in the patients was evaluated.

A significant PYGO2 overexpression was observed in %32 of the tumor cells. Interestingly, PYGO2 expression was significantly correlated with the depth of tumor invasion (P= 0.021).

PYGO2 protein may be highly expressed in ESCC in correlation with the invasiveness of the disease. Therefore, it may be used as a biomarker for diagnosis of invasive ESCC and a putative therapeutic target to inhibit ESCC invasiveness.

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