Teacher:In this task, you are given a passage which has a question and the context. You have to generate an answer to the question based on the information present in the context.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: Context: To assess whether differential expression of caspase-3 in paired metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) is prognostic of survival in patients with resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).', 'Capases-3 expression was evaluated immunohistochemically in 122 pairs of primary ESCCs and regional metastatic LNs assembled on tissue microarrays. The impact of caspase-3 expression on survival outcomes was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards regression model.', 'The level of caspase-3 expression was significantly higher in LN metastases than in primary tumors (P < 0.001). Caspase-3 expression in the primary tumors was associated with longer median survival (23 mo vs 21 mo, P = 0.033), whereas higher expression in paired metastatic LNs was associated with shorter median survival (20 mo vs 22 mo, P = 0.043). Multivariate analysis showed that both were independent prognostic factors.\Question: Is caspase-3 expression in metastatic lymph nodes of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma prognostic of survival?
Student:
Caspase-3 expression in metastatic LNs may be a potential independent predictor of poorer overall survival in patients with resected ESCC and LN metastasis. Protein expression in metastatic tumors may be a biomarker prognostic of survival.