Increased expression of ornithine decarboxylase messenger RNA in human esophageal carcinoma

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of polyam ines, which are essential for cell proliferation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate ODC expression in human esophageal cancer at the mRNA leve l, Sixty-four pairs of primary esophageal cancers and normal esophageal epi thelia were examined by reverse transcription-PCR for ODC mRNA expression. The ODC mRNA levels were higher in primary esophageal carcinoma than in adj acent normal esophageal epithelium in 58 (90.6%) of 64 cases. The tumor:nor mal (T:N) ratio of ODC mRNA expression in esophageal specimens has a signif icant correlation with tumor-node-metastasis staging (P = 0.043),lymph node metastasis (P = 0.039), vascular vessel invasion (P = 0.035), and histolog y (P = 0.034) of the tumor. In well- and moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, the patients with a higher T:N ratio showed a significantl y poorer prognosis (P = 0.027), and multivariate analysis also confirmed th at the T:N ratio has a significant correlation with poor prognosis (P = 0.0 43). The steady-state of ODC mRNA overexpression in esophageal carcinoma im plies that the ODC gene may play an important role in tumorgenesis in squam ous epithelium, Furthermore, ODC mRNA expression may be used as a prognosti c marker, especially for well- and moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma.