Clinical significance of stanniocalcin-1 detected in peripheral blood and bone marrow of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients

Background: stanniocalcin-1 (stc-1) is a potential marker of disseminated tumor cells (dtcs). the aim of this study was to examine stc-1 expression in peripheral blood (pb) and bone marrow (bm) of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (escc) patients,and to evaluate its clinical significance. methods: a total of 85 escc patients treated with radical resection were enrolled in this study. immunohistochemistry was used to detect stc-1 protein expression in escc tissues. nested rt-pcr was used to detect stc-1 mrna expression in pb and bm. results: there were 71 cases (83.5%) showed a higher level of stc-1 protein expression in tumor tissues than in adjacent normal tissues (p≤0.001). furthermore,the frequencies of stc-1 mrna expression detected in pb and bm were 37.6% (32/85) and 21.2% (18/85),respectively,and together increased sensitivity to 48.2% (41/85),which was much higher than that in patients with benign esophageal disease (5.0%,2/40,p≤0.001). in addition,stc-1 mrna expression either in pb or bm was correlated with lymph metastasis,advanced stage and adverse 2-year progression free survival (pfs). in a multivariate analysis using the cox proportional hazard model,stc-1 expression in pb and/or bm was an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for escc,apart from lymph metastasis and clinical stage. conclusions: stc-1 mrna expression is a reliable marker for detection of dtcs in pb and bm of escc patients,and stc-1-positive dtcs may be a promising tool for diagnosis and prognosis assessment in escc. © 2012 song et al.; licensee biomed central ltd.