HOXB7 Predicts Poor Clinical Outcome in Patients with Advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) accounts for most esophageal cancer in Asia, and isthe sixth common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Previous studies indicated HOXB7 is overexpressedin ESCC tissues, but data on prognostic value are limited.
Methods: A total of 76 advanced ESCC cases wereinvestigated. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the expression levels of HOXB7 and Kaplan-Meiercurves and Cox regression models to determine prognostic significance. Stratified analysis was also performedaccording to lymph node (LN) status.
Results: Kaplan-Meier curve analysis indicated that HOXB7 positivepatients had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) than HOXB7 negative patients. Multivariate analysisusing the Cox proportional hazards model indicated only TNM stage and HOXB7 expression to be independentpredictors of overall survival of advanced ESCC patients. HOXB7 indicated poor OS in both lymph node negative(LN−) and lymph node positive (LN+) patients.
Conclusion: HOXB7 predicts poor prognosis of advanced ESCCpatients and can be applied as an independent prognostic predictor.