Understanding the Dual Nature of CD44 in Breast Cancer Progression

Abstract

CD44 has been the subject of extensive research for more than 3 decades because of its role in breast cancer, in addition to many physiological processes, but interestingly, conflicting data implicate CD44 in both tumor suppression and tumor promotion. CD44 has been shown to promote protumorigenic signaling and advance the metastatic cascade. On the other hand, CD44 has been shown to suppress growth and metastasis. Histopathological studies of human breast cancer have correlated CD44 expression with both favorable and unfavorable clinical outcomes. In recent years, CD44 has garnered significant attention because of its utility as a stem cell marker and has surfaced as a potential therapeutic target, necessitating a greater understanding of CD44 in breast cancer. In this review, we attempt to unify the literature implicating CD44 in both tumor promotion and suppression, and explain its dualistic nature. Mol Cancer Res; 9(12); 1573-86. Ó2011 AACR.

microRNA Portraits in Human Vulvar Carcinoma

“…miR-21 has been shown as an oncogene capable to regulate genes as Bcl-2 (34). Moreover, activation of miR-21 by Nanog, in turn activated by CD44, has been demonstrated as having importance in multidrug resistance (35,36).…”

CD44 Standard Isoform; Not a Good Marker for Colon Cancer

“…P53, TGFb, and matrix metaloproteinases (MMPs) are other growth factors that can be modulated by CD44 and can be involved in CD44 induced tumorigenesis (8). Other studies have reported tumor suppressing activity of CD44 (27). It has been explained that dual activity of CD44 is related to its molecular weight, in which high molecular weight CD44 variants are tumor suppressors, and low molecular weights may act as tumor promoters (8).…”

The Expressions of Cancer Stem Cell Markers and Nonclassical HLA antigens in Breast Tumors

“…Basal membrane adhesion is the first step in the metastasis of cancer cells, and the highly glycosylated surface molecule CD44 plays a crucial role in this process (27)(28)(29). Several studies have demonstrated that increased CD44 expression is strongly correlated with malignant BC, but not with clinical outcome (29-31).…”