Relationship Between High Expression of Ep-CAM Protein and Clinicopathological Features of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Tissues

Objective To explore the surgical relationship between high expression of Ep-CAM protein and the infiltration, metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC) tissues. Methods The Ep-CAM expression was immunohistochemically investigated in 140 cases of primary SCC and 20 cases of adjacent non-neoplastic epithelia by PV-9000 polymer detection system for immuno-histological staining. And the relationship between clinicopathological features and high expression of Ep-CAM was analyzed. Results The high expression of Ep-CAM was observed in 85 cases(60.7%), but there was no high expression in adjacent normal tissues. Ep-CAM high expression were associated with tumor length, differentiation degree, TNM staging, infiltration depth and presence of lymph node metastasis(P<0.05), but age(P=0.142). Conclusion Ep-CAM is related to the infiltration and metastasis of ESCCs.