Background: Primary small cell carcinoma of the esophagus (SCCE) is a highly aggressive disease characterized by\r\nearly dissemination and poor prognosis. Because of the rarity of this disease, few previous studies have investigated\r\nthe biomarkers associated with its prognosis. Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (Lgr5) is\r\na stem cell marker and a member of the canonical Wnt-signaling cascade. However, the clinical role of Lgr5 in SCCE\r\nremains unknown.\r\nMethods: Tissue sections were obtained from 44 patients diagnosed with SCCE and expression of Lgr5 was\r\nexamined by immunohistochemistry. The correlations between Lgr5 expression, and clinical parameters and\r\nprognostic significance were evaluated.\r\nResults: Lgr5 was expressed in SCCE cancer tissues. High Lgr5 expression was significantly correlated with lymph\r\nnode metastasis (p = 0.003), late stage (p = 0.003) and unfavorable response to chemotherapy (p = 0.013) according\r\nto RECIST 1.0 criteria. Patients with higher Lgr5 expression levels had shorter overall survival times than those with\r\nlower expression levels.\r\nConclusions: These results demonstrated that overexpression of Lgr5 was significantly correlated with lymph node\r\nmetastasis, tumor stage, and response to chemotherapy. Furthermore, high levels of Lgr5 expression appeared to\r\nbe associated with poorer survival in patients with SCCE.
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