E2F5 as an independent prognostic factor in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

E2F Transcription Factor 5 Protein (E2F5) is considered to act primarily as a transcriptional repressor in the cell cycle. However, its expression and role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) have not been investigated. We examined whether the expression of E2F5 is related to the clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with ESCC.

The expression of E2F5 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 64 primary tumor samples obtained from patients with ESCC who had undergone curative esophagectomy between 1998 and 2009. According to the expression of E2F5 in tumor cells, cases were divided into E2F5-positive (27 cases) and -negative groups (37 cases). The relationship of various clinicopathological features and prognosis with the E2F5 status, were analyzed.

In the clinicopathological analysis, the proportion of poorly-differentiated tumors was significantly higher in the E2F5-positive group than in the E2F5-negative group (p=0.027). The 5-year survival rate of the E2F5-positive group was 39.3%, which was significantly poorer than that of the E2F5-negative group (83.8%) (p=0.006). In multivariate analysis, the expression of E2F5 was one of the most important independent prognostic factors after radical esophagectomy.

The expression of E2F5 in ESCC may be correlated with a worse prognosis of patients with ESCC.