Abstract
Astrocyte Elevated Gene-1 (AEG-1) is known to be significantly expressed in a variety of cancers, and associated with different oncogenic molecular processes, such as Wnt and NF-kB nuclear factor, which influence cancer growth and metastases. In the current study, we evaluated the prognostic role of circulating and tissue AEG-1 in esophageal cancer (EC) and its possible use as a non-invasive molecular marker to predict the prognosis.
AEG-1 was evaluated by qRT-PCR in plasma and tumor tissues excised from 82 patients with esophageal cancer.
AEG-1 was highly expressed in the plasma and tumor tissues. This high expression was associated with the known adverse prognostic factors in EC; also, this high expression was linked to short overall survival. Finally, we found the expression of AEG-1 in the plasma is sensitive and specific as its expression in the tumor tissues.
Our results revealed that AEG-1 can be used as a possible molecular marker to predict the prognosis in EC patients.