Cyclin D1 overexpression related to retinoblastoma protein expression as a prognostic marker in human oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma

The relationship between aberrant expression of cyclin D1 and retinoblastoma (RE) protein and clinicopathological factors was investigated in 80 patients with oesophageal SCC using immunohistochemical analyses. Heterogeneous staining of cancer cell nuclei with antibody to cyclin D1 was found in 31.3% of patients (25 out of 80 patients), Nuclear staining of cancer cells with anti-RE antibody was homogeneous in 10.0% (8 out of 80 patients) and heterogeneous in 58.8% (47 out of 80 patients). Among cases with homogeneous staining for RE protein, 75% (six out of eight patients) exhibited simultaneous positivity for cyclin D1 (P < 0.05). No significant relationship was found between cyclin D1 or RE protein expression and various clinicopathological parameters. The prognosis of patients with cyclin D1-positive tumours was significantly poorer than that of the other patients (P < 0.01). In addition, when patients with cyclin D1-positive and -negative tumours were stratified according to presence or absence of lymph node metastasis and RE status, the cumulative survival rates in the cyclin D1-positive groups were significantly lower for patients without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.01) and for patients whose tumours were positive for RE (P < 0.0001). These findings suggest the possibility that cyclin D1 positivity is a useful prognostic marker related to lymph node metastasis and RE protein expression in human oesophageal SCC, in addition to clinicopathological factors.