title: Evaluation of the Correlation between CD44, Tumor Prognosis and the 5-Year Survival Rate in Patients with Oral Tongue SCC.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  90% of the tumors in the head and neck are squamous-cell carcinomas (HNSCC), which have overall 5- year survival rate between 50% -60%. CD44 has been shown to be associated with the prognosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Biopsy specimens of 51 patients with oral tongue SCC were evaluated by Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for the CD44 antibody.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no significant correlation between CD44 and survival (P=0.77), age (P=0.4), CD44 and lymph node metastasis (P=0.87), sex (P=0.947), smoking (P=0.287) and tumor size (P=0.813). However, there was significant correlation between smoking and survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are widespread discrepancies among the findings in the literature regarding the prognosis of CD44 expression in OCSCC. Our study shows that the expression of CD44 is not a marker of aggressive behavior in oral tongue SCC. Consequently, CD44 cannot be considered as handy tool to establish the tumor behavior, prognosis and 5- year survival rate of these tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaboodkhani
authors.affiliation: Otorhinolaryngology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Siences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ebrahim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Karimi
authors.affiliation: Otorhinolaryngology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Siences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Taghi
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Khorsandi Ashtiani
authors.affiliation: Neurologist, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Safoura
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kowkabi
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Amiralam Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Siences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Firouzifar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Amiralam Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Siences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farzad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yazdani
authors.affiliation: Otorhinolaryngology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Siences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nasrin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yazdani
keywords: CD44; Survival; Tongue SCC