Mucin 1 expression correlates with metastatic recurrence in postoperative patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer

Mucin1 (MUC1) expression correlates with invasion and metastasis and poor survival in some cancers. The purpose of the study was to investigate the clinical significance of MUC1 expression and the risk of tumor metastatic recurrence in patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) after curative resection. A total of 108 ESCC patients were enrolled in this study. MUC1 expression was detected in ESCC tissues from 70 patients by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The expression of MUC1 in the cancerous tissue group was significantly higher than that in the paracancerous normal tissue group (65.4%:10.0%, p < 0.01). MUC1 expression correlated with pT (< 0.05), pN (p < 0.01) and pTNM stage (< 0.01). The 5-year survival rate of the patients was 39.8%. The 5-year tumor metastatic recurrence rate of the patients was 74.1%, and it was associated with pT (p < 0.01), pN (p < 0.01), pTNM stage (p < 0.01) and MUC1 expression (p < 0.01). Multivariate analysis confirmed that pN and MUC1 expression were independent predictive factors. In conclusion, MUC1 expression correlates with tumor metastatic recurrence in postoperative ESCC patients.