Inappropriate activation of JAK/STAT pathway occurs with high frequency in human cancers and is associated with cancer cell survival and proliferation. However, its role in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is unknown.

By immunohistochemistry, we analysed the expression of two components of this pathway, phosphorylated JAK-1 (pJAK-1) and phosphorylated STAT-3 (pSTAT-3), in 100 ESCC tumours and paired non-neoplastic oesophageal epithelia. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses were performed to evaluate the prognosis of patients.

We found that pJAK-1 and pSTAT-3 expression was not detectable in normal oesophageal squamous cells. Primary ESCC with pJAK-1-positive and pSTAT-3-positive expression was detected in the cancer cell nests of 78 and 72 cases, respectively. In addition, the Pearson’s correlation coefficient between pJAK-1 and pSTAT-3 expression was 0.806 (p<0.001). Moreover, pJAK-1 and pSTAT-3 expression was correlated with N stage (lymph node metastasis, both p=0.01), pTNM stage (p=0.008 and 0.009, respectively) and metastatic status (both p=0.01). Furthermore, pJAK-1 and pSTAT-3 expression was associated with shorter overall survival (both p<0.001) and shorter disease-free survival (p=0.005 and 0.006, respectively). By multivariate analysis, TNM clinical classification (T, p<0.001; N, p=0.002; M, p=0.02), pJAK-1 (p=0.002) and pSTAT-3 (p=0.003) were independent prognosis predictors of ESCC.

These results provide convincing evidence for the first time that the JAK/STAT pathway may participate in the progress of ESCC.