[Research progress of prognostic protein biomarkers associated with esophagus squamous cell carcinoma]

Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the common malignant tumors in China. Esophagectomy based on multi-disciplinary principle improves the quality of life and survival of esophageal cancer patients, but a lot of patients will suffer recurrence or metastasis after surgery. TNM stage is the most important factor which affects the prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer. Besides, there are other prognostic factors, such as abnormal expression of the proteins. Exploration of these proteins may provide new clues to improve prognosis in esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC). We reviewed the literatures related to abnormal protein expression in ESCC, and tried to elucidate the prognostic value and potential clinical application of these proteins in ESCC.