Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 21, 2017; 23(43): 7693-7704
Published online Nov 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i43.7693
Chitinase 3-like 1 secreted by peritumoral macrophages in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is a favorable prognostic factor for survival
Shan Xing, Xin Zheng, Tao Zeng, Mu-Sheng Zeng, Qian Zhong, Yue-Song Cao, Kai-Lu Pan, Chu Wei, Fan Hou, Wan-Li Liu
Shan Xing, Xin Zheng, Tao Zeng, Mu-Sheng Zeng, Qian Zhong, Fan Hou, Wan-Li Liu, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou 510060, Guangdong Province, China
Shan Xing, Xin Zheng, Tao Zeng, Fan Hou, Wan-Li Liu, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, Guangdong Province, China
Yue-Song Cao, Department of Biotechnology, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi Province, China
Kai-Lu Pan, Chu Wei, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan 523808, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Xing S and Zheng X contributed equally to this work; Xing S, Zheng X and Liu WL participated in the experimental design and carried out the experiments; Xing S and Liu WL drafted the manuscript and interpreted the data; Cao YS, Pan KL and Wei C collected the samples; Zeng T and Hou F took part in the acquisition of the data; Zeng MS and Zhong Q provided experimental guidance; and all the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Wan-Li Liu, PhD, Professor, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, 651 Dongfeng Road East, Guangzhou 510060, Guangdong Province, China. liuwl@sysucc.org.cn
Telephone: +86-20-87343196 Fax: +86-20-87343196
Received: June 30, 2017
Peer-review started: June 30, 2017
First decision: August 15, 2017
Revised: September 13, 2017
Accepted: September 26, 2017
Article in press: September 26, 2017
Published online: November 21, 2017
Processing time: 144 Days and 2.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The current staging system is inadequate for predicting post-treated survival. Our study first established a connection between pretreated chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1) and patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and serum CHI3L1 was primarily secreted by ESCC-surrounded macrophages, suggesting that CHI3L1 was a simple and inexpensive prognostic factor. This simple, convenient serological testing allows for clinical application. In addition, in our study, the ESCC microenvironment, especially the secretion of IL - 6 by esophageal tumor cells, promotes the macrophage production of CHI3L1. These findings might help to identify high-risk patients for treatment decisions and to elucidate the mechanisms of ESCC.