Expression and clinical significance of c-Met in advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: c-Met, one of current potential hot targets, has been suggested as a potential tumor marker in the development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Our aim was to investigate the expression of c-Met in advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in four phase II trials who had tumor tissues from archival in our center and analyze the correlations between c-Met expression and clinical features. METHODS: Ninety patients with advanced ESCC who were admitted to the phase II clinical trials in the Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute from March 2007 to March 2014 were finally eligible for present study and the corresponding tissues and clinical data were collected. The expression of c-Met in the tissue samples was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). c-Met overexpression was defined as ≥ the median value of H-score. Kaplan-Meier and Cox multivariate regression were conducted to evaluate the relationship between c-Met expression and ESCC survival. RESULTS: The overexpression of c-Met is 43.3% in advanced ESCC. There was no statistical difference between c-Met expression and clinical features except sex and tumor location. Survival analysis documented that the overexpression of c-Met predicted a worse prognosis (OS: 253 d vs 422 d, P = 0.011). In the group treated with chemotherapy combined with anti-EGFR drugs, patients with lowexpression of c-Met had a better OS than those with overexpression of c-Met (OS: 577 d vs 232 d, P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: c-Met may be an independent prognostic factor in advanced ESCC. The overexpression of c-Met may predict a worse efficacy of anti-EGFR therapy.