Prognostic significance of Notch1 expression in operable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Objective: To study the correlation between Notch1 expression and the prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods: Notch1 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry and the correlation between Notch1 and patients' prognosis was evaluated. Results: A total of 228 patients with ESCC who had undergone curative resection in the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Yinzhou Hospital, were analyzed retrospectively. Notch1 expression was significantly associated with sex, age, tumor size, T stage, and N stage (P < 0.05). High expression of Notch1 was related with poor overall survival (P < 0.05). The Cox's proportional hazard model showed that patients with high expression of Notch1 had a 2.22-fold, 2.91-fold, and 1.86-fold increased relative risk of developing treatment failure, distant metastasis, and death respectively, compared with patients with low expression of Notch1. Conclusions: Expression of Notch1 is thus a predictive factor of distant metastasis and OS in operable ESCC patients.