The significance of CD44 expression in gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors.

  • 9 July 2005
    • journal article
    • Vol. 52  (64) , 1071-6
Abstract
Expression of CD44 and its isoforms has been demonstrated to be a prognostic marker in many neoplasms. Gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumor is a slow-growing neoplasm, whose behavior is determined by site of occurrence, size or specific histologic growth pattern. In this study, the feasibility of using CD44 as a prognostic marker in gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumor is evaluated. Representative paraffin-embedded sections of gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumor from 22 patients were studied by immunohistochemical staining using monoclonal antibodies against CD44, Ki-67, and p53 retrospectively. The correlation between these markers and clinical behavior of the tumors was analyzed. Positive expression of CD44 was observed in 15 cases (68%) of gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumor. Expression of CD44 showed significant inverse correlation with lymph node status (P=0.049), distant metastasis (p or = 2+) tumors had significantly favorable survival (p=0.004) compared with those with weaker immunoreactivity (< or = 1+) tumors. Expression of CD44 in gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumor inversely correlates with tumor metastasis, associates with a favorable outcome and may serve as one of the prognostic indicators.

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