Copyright
©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Overexpression of HSP27 and HSP70 is associated with decreased survival among patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma
Henna K Söderström, Juha T Kauppi, Niku Oksala, Timo Paavonen, Leena Krogerus, Jari Räsänen, Tuomo Rantanen
Henna K Söderström, Juha T Kauppi, Jari Räsänen, Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki 00029, Finland
Niku Oksala, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere 33014, Finland
Niku Oksala, Department of Vascular Surgery, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere 33520, Finland
Timo Paavonen, Department of Pathology, Fimlab Laboratories and Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere 33520, Finland
Leena Krogerus, Department of Pathology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, 00029 Helsinki 00029, Finland
Tuomo Rantanen, Department of Surgery, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio 70029, Finland
Tuomo Rantanen, Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio 70029, Finland
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to this paper.
Institutional review board statement: The study has been approved by the Ethics Committee at Helsinki University Central Hospital.
Informed consent statement: Because of retrospective study signed informed consent form is not needed. However, Helsinki University Hospital has given permission to conduct this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tuomo Rantanen, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Surgery, Kuopio University Hospital, Box 100, Kuopio 70029, Finland. tuomo.rantanen@kuh.fi
Telephone: +358-50-4028461 Fax: +358-17-173 599
Received: November 19, 2018
Peer-review started: November 19, 2018
First decision: December 5, 2018
Revised: December 21, 2018
Accepted: December 29, 2018
Article in press: December 30, 2018
Published online: February 6, 2019
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Overexpression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) is associated with several malignancies. It contributes to the development, progression, and metastasis of cancer, and to the inhibition of cellular death. There has been active research into using HSP inhibitors in several malignancies in recent years.
Research motivation
Because of the poor prognosis of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), it would be valuable to find new biomarkers for the development of cancer treatments.
Research objectives
In the present study, the authors intend to analyze the expression of HSP27 and HSP70, and their association with survival, in patients with EAC.
Research methods
Immunohistochemical analyses and evaluations of HSP27 and HSP70 expression were performed on all available samples from 93 patients diagnosed with EAC. From the same patient population, 15 cases with Barrett’s metaplasia and 5 control cases were included in the analysis. HSP expression was quantitatively assessed and classified as high or low. Kaplan-Meier analyses and Cox regression models were used to evaluate the effect on survival.
Research results
Tumor stage and surgical treatment were the main prognostic factors. High HSP27 expression in cancer cases was a strong negative predictive factor, with a mean survival of 23 mo vs the 49 mo in cases with a low expression. The results were similar for HSP70, with a poorer survival of 17 mo in cases with high HSP70 expression, in contrast to 40 mo in cases with a low expression. Higher HSP27 and HSP70 expressions remained an independent negative prognostic factor. The HSPs’ correlation with survival was not affected by cancer treatments.
Research conclusions
To the best of our knowledge, reported for the first time, HSP27 and HSP70 overexpression is associated with poor survival in EAC.
Research perspectives
To evaluate their feasibility and utility as therapeutic targets, further studies on HSP27/70 expressions in EAC are required.
