Background: TAOS1 (tumor amplified and overexpressed sequence 1) was recently cloned and found to be possibly important in driving the amplification of 11q13 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
Materials and methods: Quantitative RT-PCR was performed to determine the possible relationship between TAOS1 gene expression levels and clinicopathological features in esophageal SCC.
Results: TAOS1 overexpression was observed in 7 out of 38 (18%) esophageal SCCs and CCND1 overexpression was observed in 4 out of 38 (11%), suggesting that TAOS1 was more frequently overexpressed than CCND1 in esophageal SCC. The examination of the correlation of TAOS1 overexpression with the clinicopathological features revealed a significant difference in lymph node metastasis (p = 0.014) and a trend towards advanced TNM stages (p = 0.074).
Conclusion: The present results suggest that TAOS1 might serve as a new marker for predicting the malignancy of esophageal SCC.