Original ContributionContribution of MAML1 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tumorigenesis

•Overexpression of MAML1 was detected in 59% of ESCC tumor samples.•MAML1 was significantly associated with ESCC clinicopathology.•MAML1 may be proposed as potentially molecular marker for ESCC progression.

BackgroundNotch signaling pathway is involved in different cellular and developmental processes including cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Mastermind like1 (MAML1) is a critical key transcription coactivator of this pathway. In this study, we aimed to examine MAML1 protein expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and reveal its association with clinicopathological variables of the patients.MethodsTumoral and their margin normal tissues from 56 ESCC patients were recruited for protein expression analysis using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Furthermore, MAML1 expression was analyzed in ESCC cell line KYSE-30 using immunocytochemistry.ResultsOverexpression of MAML1 was detected in 59% of tumor samples. It was significantly associated with different indices of poor prognosis including depth of tumor invasion (P = 0.026), grade of tumor differentiation (P = 0.002), stage of tumor progression (P = 0.004) and sex (P = 0.027).ConclusionBeside the appearing evidences explaining MAML1 role in different cellular processes and its deviations in different malignancies and also based on its correlation with different clinicopathological variables of ESCC, MAML1 can be proposed as potentially novel molecular marker for ESCC progression and tumorigenesis as well as therapeutic target to inhibit and reverse progression and development of the disease.