title: CD44 Variant 9 Serves as a Poor Prognostic Marker in Early Gastric Cancer, But Not in Advanced Gastric Cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study is to investigate the significance of CD44 variant 9 (CD44v9) expression as a biomarker in primary gastric cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  With various gastric tissues, we performed immunohistochemical staining for CD44v9.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The positive expression rates for CD44v9 in tumor, including adenoma, early gastric cancer (EGC), and advanced gastric cancer (AGC), were higher than those in non-tumor tissues (p=0.003). In addition, the higher expression for CD44v9 was observed as the tissue becomes malignant. In the analysis of 333 gastric cancer tissues, we found that positive expression rates for CD44v9 were higher in the intestinal type or well differentiated gastric cancer than in the diffuse type or poorly differentiated gastric cancer. Interestingly, the positive expression indicated poor prognosis in EGC (5-year survival rate [5-YSR] in stage I, 81.7% vs. 95.2%; p=0.013), but not in AGC (5-YSR in stage II, 66.9% vs. 62.2%; p=0.821; 5-YSR in stage III, 34.5% vs. 32.0%; p=0.929). Moreover, strong positive expression (3+) showed a trend suggesting worse prognosis only in EGC, and it appeared to be associated with lymph node metastasis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that CD44v9 may be a good biomarker for prognosis prediction and for chemoprevention or biomarker-driven therapies only for EGC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Se-Il
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Go
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Gyung Hyuck
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Won Sup
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health Center, Dong-A University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Rock Bum
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong-Hee
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Joon
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Soon Chan
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.
authors.forename: Woo Song
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Ha
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000235:genetics; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C448906:CD44v9 antigen; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors
keywords: Biological markers; CD44 variant; Prognosis; Stomach neoplasms; Survival