Investigation of prognostic significance of CD109 expression in women with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

ObjectiveThe goal of this study was to investigate the between cluster of differentiation 109 (CD109) expression and tumor diameter, invasion depth, tumor grade, presence of lymph-node metastasis, and overall survival in patients with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma, which is the most common type of vulvar cancer.MethodTwenty-six patients who underwent an operation for vulvar cancer between 1999 and 2009 in our clinic were included in this study. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue.ResultTumor diameter was not found to be significantly associated with CD109 expression, intensity of cytoplasmic staining, or combined score (P = 0.325, P = 0.169, P = 0.352, respectively). Invasion depth and combined score were also not significantly correlated with CD109 expression (P = 0.324 and P = 0.174 respectively). There was a negative correlation between invasion depth and the intensity of cytoplasmic staining (P = 0.042). There was no significant correlation between tumor stage and CD109 expression, the intensity of cytoplasmic staining, and the combined score (P = 0.574, P = 0.389, P = 0.605, respectively). A significant positive correlation was observed between tumor grade and CD109 expression, the intensity of cytoplasmic staining, and the combined score (P = 0.003, P = 0.018, P = 0.008, respectively). No significant difference was found between the percentages of CD109 expression in patients with positive (48%) and negative (11%) lymph nodes (P = 0.058). The percentage of CD109 expression did not significantly differ in relation to overall survival (P = 0.483).ConclusionComprehensive and more extensive studies are needed to examine the relationship between CD109 expression and vulvar malignant lesions.

Development of novel monoclonal antibodies against CD109 overexpressed in human pancreatic cancer

“…Similarly, Dong and co-workers showed that CD109 is expressed in bladder squamous cell carcinomas and adenosquamous carcinomas but not in adenocarcinomas or normal gallbladder tissue [ 33 ]. A positive correlation has been reported between CD109 expression and tumour grade in patients with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma [ 37 ]. More recently, CD109 was found highly expressed in penile squamous cell carcinoma and to be a key regulator of the progression of lower-grade glioma and therefore a potential molecular target for therapy [ 36 , 38 ].…”

The application of Aptamer in biomarker discovery

“…Overexpression of CD109 has also been detected in NPC stem-like cells. Moreover, recent studies have revealed that CD109 is overexpressed in multiple human cancers, including squamous cell carcinoma of the lung [ 92 ], vulva [ 93 ] and uterine cervix [ 94 ], adenosquamous carcinoma of the gallbladder [ 95 ], and ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas [ 96 ]. Recently, a meta-analysis has proved the association between the high level of CD109 expression and poor overall survival in cancer patients, suggesting the use of CD109 as a prognostic [ 97 ].…”