Investigation of prognostic significance of CD44 expression in women with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

The aim of our study is to evaluate whether CD 44 isoform expression is a prognostic factor in vulvar carcinom and to correlate the expression with clinicopathological parameters. Methods: The study included 26 patients diagnosed with invasive squamous cell vulvar cancer. The data of patients were obtained from the oncology followup records and the hospital database. The haemotoxylene & eosin stained preparates of the cases were removed from the archives and re-evaluated by examination of the slides under a light microscope. The preparates of the patients were evaluated separately according to the extent and intensity of staining and the combined score applied with the immunohistochemical method in the anti-CD44 antibody in the epithelium and the stroma. Results: When the CD44 epithelial staining intensity and staining combined scores of the patients were examined according to other clinicopathological parameters, a statistically significant difference was found between the groups in terms of tumour grade, differentiation, age, lymph node positivity, and survival rates (p<0.05). As epithelial staining increased and the combined score increased, the tumour grade and lymph node positivity were observed to increase, differentiation worsened and survival reduced. Conclusions: The identification of additional new markers to present useful prognostic factors for vulvar carcinoma is critical. Aberrant expression of CD44 mediated adhesion is likely to constitute one of the main factors leading to the reduced cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion characteristics of tumor cells and play a pivotal role in the acquisition of invasive and metastatic properties by neoplastic epithelial cells.