Expression of survivin in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its correla-tion with bcl-2,bax

Objective:To explore the expression of survivin and its correlation with the expression of bcl-2, bax in esophageal squamous cell carcinomas(ESCC). Methods: Immunohis-tochemical method was used to determine the expression of survivin, bcl-2 and bax gene in 85 cases of ESCC tissues and tumor-adjacent normal mucosa tissues. Results: Survivin was expressed in 66 of 85(77.64%) cases of ESCC and in 6 of 85 (7.06 %) cases of normal tissues. Expression of survivin was significantly higher in ESCC than that in normal tissues(P0.05). Overexpression of survivin was related to the tumor grade and lymphatic metastasis(P0.05). Expression of survivin was positively correlation with bcl-2 (P0.05), but not with bax expression (P0.05). Conclusion: Survivin may play an important role in the pathway of carcinogenesis and progression of ESCC and it may be identified as a new therapeutic target. Survivin and bcl-2 may play synergetic roles in the developmeut of ESCC.