Phosphorylation of Fascin Decreases the Risk of Poor Survival in Patients With Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Phosphorylation of fascin at serine 39 (phospho-S39-fascin) could inhibit its actin-binding and actin-bundling activities and decrease filopodia formation. However, the relationship between phospho-539-fascin expression and clinicopathological parameters in tumors is still unknown. Here, Western blot analysis and IHC applied to tissue microarray technology were performed to examine the expression status of non-phosphorylated fascin (fascin) and phospho-S39-fascin and their impacts on the prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Fascin and phospho-539-fascin expressions were tested by cytoplasmic staining. Among the 254 patients, 90 cases showed high expression of fascin and 87 cases showed high expression of phospho-S39-fascin. Survival analysis showed that high expression of fascin was significantly associated with a poor prognosis of the patients with ESCC (p=0.004). In contrast, high expression of phospho-539-fascin correlated significantly with an improved outcome of patients (p=0.020). Multivariate analysis showed that both fascin and phospho-539-fascin were independent prognostic factors. In a combined analysis, the patients with high expression of fascin and low expression of phospho-S39-fascin tumors had a shorter overall survival than those with high expression of both fascin and phospho-S39-fascin tumors (5-year overall survival rate: 28.7% vs 48.3%, p=0.068). Our results suggest that high expression of fascin correlates with poor outcome and that high expression of phospho-S39-fascin decreases the risk of poor prognosis in ESCC. This manuscript contains online supplemental material at http://www.jhc.org. Please visit this article online to view these materials. (J Histochem Cytochem 58:979-988, 2010)