Expression Of CD44v6 In Human Cervical Cancer And Its Clinical Significance

In the world, cervical cancer is the most comm.on cancer inwomen's cancer, second to breast cancer. There are about 500 000new cases every year all over the world. Cluster of differentiation 44(CD44) is a member of extra cellular matrix(ECM). CD44v6 is akind of CD44v which expresses exon v6. CD44v6 participates in theprocess of tumor invasion and metastasis. It is reported that CD44v6is highly expressed in many cancer tissues, including cervical cancer.The tumor cells with CD44v6 expressed have more potential ofmetastasis to lymph nodes. Invasive cervical cancer mainly spreadsvia the lymphatic, and doctors formulate the treatment programs andevaluate the prognosis based on whether tumor spreads to thelymph nodes. So it is significant to forecast or find lymphaticmetastasis in the early stage. CD44 is an adhesion molecule thatinteracts with hyaluronic acid (HA). HA is very rich in ECM. CD44can resolve HA and promote tumor cells invasion. Furthermore, therapid turnover of CD44 owing to the link between proteolyticcleavage and transcriptional activation may lead to efficient cellmigration. In this study, CD44v6 is examined in normal cervix,CINand different cervical cancer in order to investigate its relationshipwith the invasion and metastasis of cervical cancer.Object To investigate the relationship between the expressionof CD44v6 in cervical cancer tissues and tumor invasion andmetastasis.Method Collect 15 cases of normal cervixes ,33 cases ofCIN and 48 cases of invasive cervical cancer. The clinical stages of48 cases of ICC were divided in to â… ,â…¡,â…¢ ,and 19 cases wereconfirmed lymphatic metastasis by pathology .All the cases were nottreated by radiotherapy or chemotherapy before surgery. Furthermore,21 cases of ICC were extracted the cervical biopsy before surgery. Inthe study, we examine the expression of CD44v6 byimmunohistochemical method. Statistical methods were used toanalyze and compare the datum.Results The positive immunostaining rate for CD44v6 inICC(68.75%) were significantly higher than that in CIN(45.45%)and NCE(13.33%)(P<0.05). The expression of CD44v6 is positivelyrelated to lymphatic metastasis. The positive expression of CD44v6in cervical cancer with lymphatic metastasis (94.74%) was obviouslyhigher than that without lymphatic metastasis(51.72%)(P<0.05).The rate of lymphatic metastasis in the cases which expressedCD44v6 was 54.54%, while the rate in those without CD44v6expression was 6.67%(P<0.05). The higher the pathologic grade ofcarcinoma, the more the expression of CD44v6 (P<0.05). In thecases of ICC before surgery, the rate of lymphatic metastasis inCD44v6 positively expressed was higher than CD44v6 negativelyexpressed. The positive immunostaining rate for CD44v6 showed anascending tendency with the advance of clinical phase, but there wasno positive correlation (P>0.05). Among the group of CIN, thepositive immunostaining for CD44v6 also showed an ascendingtendency, and there was no positive correlation (P>0.05).Conclusions 1. In the cases of invasive cervical cancer, thepositive expression of CD44v6 with lymphatic metastasis wasobviously higher than that without lymphatic metastasis. CD44v6may participate in the process of tumor lymphatic metastasis. 2. Thepositive expression of CD44v6 is positively related with thepathologic grade of ICC. The higher the pathologic grade ofcarcinoma, the more the expression of CD44v6. So CD44v6 may berelated to the invasive behavior of tumor cells. 3. In the cases of ICCbefore surgery, the rate of lymphatic metastasis in CD44v6positively expressed was higher than CD44v6 negatively expressed,which suggests that the examination of CD44v6 before surgerymight predicate the lymphatic metastasis. 4. It has certain clinicalsignificance to measure CD44v6 expression. The antibody toCD44v6 may be used to decrease the invasive ability of tumor cellsand provide a new therapeutic target for cervical cancer.