Overexpression of Phospholipase A2 Group IIA in Esophageal SCC and Association with COX-2 Expression

Esophageal cancer is a highly aggressive malignant disease with a 5-year survival rate of 10% to 15% (Ferri et al., 2012). The incidence of esophageal cancer varies greatly between populations and across geographic regions. The Taihangshan Mountain area, including Linxian in Henan Province, a rural area of China, has the highest incidence of esophageal cancer, especially squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), in the world (>100 per 100, 000 population) (Zhang et al., 2011; Lin et al., 2013). Inflammation has been recognized as a contributing factor for the pathogenesis of ESCC. There are results showing that two key inflammatory enzymes, Phospholipase A2 Group IIA (PLA2G2A) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) are involved in the pathways of arachidonic acid (AA) biosynthesis, and both play an important role in inflammation and angiogenesis as well as cancer (Murakami et al., 2011). Recently, we reported that PLA2G2A and COX-2 gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may modify the risk of ESCC Abstract