The combination of positive anti‑WDR1 antibodies with negative anti‑CFL1 antibodies in serum is a poor prognostic factor for patients with esophageal carcinoma.

WD repeat-containing protein 1 (WDR1) regulates the cofilin 1 (CFL1) activity, promotes cytoskeleton remodeling, and thus, facilitates cell migration and invasion. A previous study reported that autoantibodies against CFL1 and β-actin were useful biomarkers for diagnosing and predicting the prognosis of patients with esophageal carcinoma. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the serum levels of anti-WDR1 antibodies (s-WDR1-Abs) combined with serum levels of anti-CFL1 antibodies (s-CFL1-Abs) in patients with esophageal carcinoma. Serum samples obtained from 192 patients with esophageal carcinoma and other solid cancers. And s-WDR1-Ab and s-CFL1-Ab titers were analyzed using the amplified luminescent proximity homogeneous assay-linked immunosorbent assay. Compared with those of healthy donors, the s-WDR1-Ab levels were significantly higher in the 192 patients with esophageal, whereas these were not significantly higher in the samples from patients with gastric, colorectal, lung, or breast cancer. In 91 patients treated with surgery, sex, tumor depth, lymph node metastasis, stage and C-reactive protein levels were significantly associated with overall survival, as determined using the log-rank test, whereas the squamous cell carcinoma antigen, p53 antibody and s-WDR1-Ab levels tended to be associated with a worse prognosis. Although no significant difference was observed in the survival between the positive and negative groups of s-WDR1-Abs or s-CFL1-Abs alone in the Kaplan-Meier test, the patients in the s-WDR1-Ab-positive and s-CFL1-Ab-negative groups exhibited a significantly poorer prognosis in the overall survival analysis. On the whole, the present study demonstrates that the combination of positive anti-WDR1 antibodies with negative anti-CFL1 antibodies in serum may be a poor prognostic factor for patients with esophageal carcinoma.