The Clinical Value of CD44 in Gastric Cancer

Ryu, Kyung Ho; Kim, Hyung Chul; Baek, Moo Jun; Song, Ok Pyung; Kim, Chang Jin

Abstract

PURPOSE: This research was performed to investigate the relationship between CD44 and cancer cell invasion depth, histologic differentiation, tumor size and lymph node metastasis in the gastric carcinoma.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In 20 cases of early gastric cancer and 40 cases of advanced gastric cancer, the immunohistochemical staining for CD44v3 and CD44v5 was performed.
RESULTS
1. In all 60 cases, the positive rates for CD44v3 and CD44v5 were 18.3% and 71.7% respectively. 2. CD44v5 was expressed in 45% of early gastric cancer and 85% of advanced gastric cancer. 3. Larger tumor exhibited higher positive rates for CD44v5. 4. There were 28 cases of lymph node metastases out of 43 cases of CD44v5-positive primary gastric carcinoma (65.1%), and were 4 cases of lymph node metastases out of 17 CD44v5-negative cases (23.5%). 5. The 5 year survival rate was low in CD44v5- positive cases (p-value=0.039).
CONCLUSION
The tumors that exhibit deep invasion and have large size and lymph node metastases tend to have more frequent expression of CD44v3 and CD44v5. In especially CD44v5. We found a good correlation between he expression of CD44v5 and the established prognostic factors. Actually we can use the CD44v5 rather than CD44v3 as a prognostic factor in advanced gastric cancer.