Expression of CD44 in Uterine Cervical Squamous Neoplasia: A Predictor of Microinvasion?

Downregulated CD44 and hyaluronan expression in vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia and squamous cell carcinomas

“…Furthermore, stronger downregulation associates with poorly differentiated forms of the squamous cancers (31) and increases the risk of unfavorable outcome of the disease (32)(33)(34)(35). In cervical squamous cell carcinoma, the standard form of CD44 was significantly decreased in invasive tumors and also in microinvasive carcinomas compared to the splice variants (36,37). The present work confirms a clear difference in CD44 expression between normal and malignant squamous cells, and shows for the first time that this change occurs also in the HA expression of the cancer of vulva.…”

“…A further derangement of CD44 and HA distributions was observed in fully developed squamous cell carcinomas of the vulva, with fragmentation of the plasma membrane associated signal and appearance of intracellular staining, together with a generally lower staining intensity as compared with the corresponding normal epithelium. A number of previous studies using antibodies against CD44 or its specific splice variants have shown that CD44 expression is reduced in squamous cell carcinomas originating from various tissues (14, 29, 31–37). Furthermore, stronger downregulation associates with poorly differentiated forms of the squamous cancers (31) and increases the risk of unfavorable outcome of the disease (32–35).…”

Significance of immunohistochemical over-expression of CD44v6 as an indicator of malignant potential in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

“…Specimens were regarded as CD44v6 over-expressing cases when more than 50% of the carcinoma cells demonstrated CD44v6 signals and those with less than 50% of the carcinoma cells showing CD44v6 signals were regarded as CD44v6 negative. This criteria to determine the overexpression of CD44v6 has been used in some previous official investigations (Hefler et al 2002;Kim et al 2002;Ranuncolo et al 2002;Callagy et al 2000;van Hal et al 1999). …”

Significance of CD44v6 expression in gynecologic malignancies

“…Some authors have reported that CD44v6 is a poor prognostic indicator, 14–18 while some could not find any prognostic value 19–21 . In addition, others have identified reduced expression of CD44 isoforms in cervical premalignant lesions and cervical cancer 22–25 . Furthermore, results between variant CD44 expression and endometrial cancer 26–31 as well as ovarian cancer 32–38 have not been consistent in terms of clinical significance.…”