title: CD44 expression is associated with increased survival in node-negative invasive breast carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  CD44 is a multifunctional cell surface receptor with many known splice variants, some of which have been reported to play a role in tumor progression. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of CD44 isoforms in early-stage, lymph node-negative invasive breast carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemical staining for CD44 isoforms was done on archival paraffin tissue sections of invasive breast carcinoma from a cohort of lymph node-negative patients who received no adjuvant tamoxifen or chemotherapy and who had a mean clinical follow-up period of 15 years. Immunohistochemical staining was done with antibodies to CD44s, the standard isoform of CD44, and to isoforms containing variant exon 6 (CD44v6); levels of staining were correlated with clinical outcome data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a trend towards increased disease-free survival for patients whose tumors had high anti-CD44s positivity (P = 0.05), and a significant association was observed between anti-CD44s positivity and disease-related survival (P = 0.04). Expression of CD44v6 isoforms did not correlate with clinical outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CD44 expression, as assessed by immunohistochemical staining with anti-CD44s, may be a favorable prognostic factor in patients with node-negative invasive breast carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Leslie K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Edward T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cristofanilli
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Nour
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sneige
authors.forename: Aysegul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sahin
authors.forename: Michael Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Gilcrease
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000096:biosynthesis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen