Evaluation of topoisomerase I/Topoisomerase IIα status in esophageal cancer

Abstract

Human DNA topoisomerases I and IIα (Topo-I and -IIα) are essential for vital cellular processes such as DNA replication, transcription, translation, recombination, and repair. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of the expression of Topo-I and Topo-IIα. Twenty-nine specimens of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma from patients who had been treated by complete resection of the esophageal tumor were studied by an immunohistochemical analysis. High expression of Topo I and IIα was identified in 48.7% and 55.2% of tumors, respectively. Neither the Topo-I nor -IIα expression level had any association with clinical characteristics, including differentiation and the depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, or the patient prognosis. However, a significant positive correlation was observed between the expression levels of Topo-I and Topo-IIα. Our study results underscore the potential role of topoisomerase expression in esophageal cancer and further exploratory investigation is necessary to evaluate topoisomerase expression as a surrogate marker in chemotherapy with topoisomerase inhibitor for esophageal cancer.