Expression And Clinical Significance Of TfR1 In Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinomas

Objective: To detect the expression of transferrin receptor 1(TfR1)in tumor tissues and soluble transferrin receptor(sTfR)in plasma specimens from patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC),and to investigate the relationship between TfR1 and the clinicopathological features of ESCC patients and its clinical significance.Method: The expression of TfR1 was detected in 43 ESCC tissues,20 esophagitis tissues and 14 paraneoplastic tissues by immunohistochemical staining;sTfR levels in plasma specimens from 29 ESCC cases and 15 healthy physical examiners were detected by double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunoassay(ELISA).Results: 1.TfR1 was highly expressed in ESCC tissues compared with paraneoplastic tissues and esophagitis tissues(P < 0.05);2.The high expression of TfR1 was related to the presence or absence of distant metastasis and the differentiation degree of tumor in ESCC patients.The expression of TfR1 in the group with distant metastasis was significantly higher than that in the group without distant metastasis;the poorer the degree of tumor cell differentiation,the expression of TfR1 was significantly higher(P < 0.05);the expression of TfR1 did not correlate with patient gender,age,tumor size,T and N stages,the presence of preoperative chemotherapy,and clinical stage(P > 0.05);3.Compared with the control group,the expression of sTfR in ESCC patients showed significantly higher expression levels in plasma(P < 0.05);the results of ROC analysis showed that the area under the curve(AUC)of sTfR for predicting ESCC diagnosis was 0.772,with a sensitivity of 48.1% and specificity of 91.7%.Conclusions: 1.The high expression of Tf R 1 in ESCC tissues suggests that ESCC patients may be prone to distant metastasis with higher tumor malignancy.2.Detecting sTfR levels in plasma may help assist in the early diagnosis of ESCC.