CD44 expression is associated with increased survival in node-negative invasive breast carcinoma.
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.
Diaz
Leslie K
LK
Department of Pathology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Zhou
Xiao
X
Wright
Edward T
ET
Cristofanilli
Massimo
M
Smith
Terry
T
Yang
Ying
Y
Sneige
Nour
N
Sahin
Aysegul
A
Gilcrease
Michael Z
MZ
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
D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen