The utility of the proliferative index in pretreatment biopsy specimens of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

The proliferative index detected immunohistochemically by monoclonal antibody MIB-1 from pre-treatment biopsy tissues of 33 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy was evaluated in relation to clinicopathologic features and chemoradiotherapeutic responses. The response to chemoradiotherapy was assessed both endoscopically and pathologically and classified as complete or partial response. Higher MIB-1 LI was significantly associated with lymph node metastases, suggesting that detection of MIB-1 LI from biopsy tissues may contribute to pre-treatment staging of tumors and prediction of persistence of lymph node involvement after chemoradiotherapy, which would permit the optimization of systemic treatment for individual patients. Statistically, significant correlation existed between higher MIB 1-LI and poor overall survival, implicating the prognostic significance of the MIB-1 LI in patients undergoing multimodality treatment. No significant relationship was found between the MIB-1 LI and either endoscopic or pathologic responses, although a trend for tumors with lower MIB-1 LI to have better responses was observed.