[Expression and significance of MCM4 in esophageal cancer].

MCM4 belongs to minichromosome maintenance (MCM) protein family. It is a DNA replication licensing factor. This study was to explore the expression and significance of MCM4 in esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC). The expression of MCM4 in 60 specimens of ESCC, paracancer esophageal epithelia, and distant normal esophageal epithelia was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The Correlations of MCM4 expression to clinicopathologic features of the 60 ESCC patients were analyzed. The positive rate of MCM4 was significantly higher in ESCC than in paracancer esophageal epithelia (65.0% vs. 33.3%, P<0.001); MCM4 was not expressed or weakly expressed in distant normal esophageal epithelia. The positive rate of MCM4 was significantly higher in stage T3 ESCC than in stage T1 ESCC (73.7% vs. 25.0%, P<0.05). The expression of MCM4 had no correlations to grade, lymph node metastasis, sex, and age. The expression of MCM4 might be related to the pathologic stage of ESCC.