Expression And Significance Of Molecule CD44v6 In Breast Invasive Ductal Carcinoma

Objective: To evaluate the relevance between the expression of CD44v6 and age, menstrual status, histological grade, tumor size, axillary lymph node metastasis, ER, PR, CerBb-2 and P53 in breast invasive ductal carcinoma; to study the influence of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on molecule CD44v6, and to investigate the predictable meaning of prognosis of molecule CD44v6 in breast cancer.Methods: One hundred mastectomy specimens from Otc.2002 to Nov.2005 were retrieved from the department of pathology in Chongqing Medical University. The cases included preoperative non-chemotherapy breast cancer tissue (30 cases), preoperative intervention chemotherapy breast cancer tissue (30 cases) and preoperative vein chemotherapy breast cancer tissue (30 cases). The puncture core biopsy before chemotherapy is compared with the breast cancer tissue after chemotherapy. 10 specimens of para-tumor non-tumor breast tissues were collected. All the breast cancer specimens were breast invasive ductal carcinoma. CD44v6, CerBb-2, ER, PR and P53 were detected by SP immunohistochemistry and analyzed by statistics. All the patients were followed-up from 39 to 63 months .The median follow-up period was 57 months.Results:1. The positive molecule CD44v6 was detected in the breast cancer cell membrane, presented brown-yellow. The positive tissues were 73 cases and the negative tissues were 17 cases in 90 specimens of breast invasive ductal carcinoma. The positive rate was 81.1%(73/90)which was higher than the para -tumor non-tumor breast tissues 0%(0/10). There was a significant difference (P<0.05).2. The expression of CD44v6 was positively correlated to histological grade, tumor size, axillary lymph node metastasis(P<0.05),but it had no significant relevance to age, menstrual status, ER, PR, CerBb-2 and P53(P>0.05).3. After the 57 months'median follow-up, it was found that the overall survival rate was significantly higher in CD44v6-negative group than in CD44v6-positive group(P<0.05). The survival curve had a tendency to decline with the stronger expression of CD44v6. There was significant difference among the low expression of CD44v6 , the middle expression of CD44v6 and the high expression of CD44v6(P<0.05).4. Cox model revealed CD44v6 was an independent prognostic factor of breast cancer(P<0.05).5. The positive expression of CD44v6 was 24 cases and the negative was 6 cases in preoperative non- chemotherapy breast cancer tissues. The positive expression of CD44v6 was 25 cases and the negative was 5 cases in preoperative intervention chemotherapy breast cancer tissue. After intervention chemotherapy the positive expression of CD44v6 was 25 cases and the negative was 5 cases. The positive expression of CD44v6 was 24 cases and the negative was 6 cases in preoperative vein chemotherapy breast cancer tissue. After vein chemotherapy the positive expression of CD44v6 was 24 cases and the negative was 6 cases. There was no obvious significance between intervention chemotherapy group and vein chemotherapy (P>0.05).Conclusions:1. CD44v6 is highly expressed in breast cancer tissues but it is not expressed in para-tumor non-tumor breast tissues, which shows that CD44v6 may be have strong specificity in the diagnosis of breast cancer.2. The expression of CD44v6 is positively correlated to histological grade, tumor size, axillary lymph node metastasis and the numbers of axillary lymph node metastasis. That is to say: the higher the Histological grade is , the greater the tumor size and the more the numbers of axillary lymph node metastasis is, the higher expression of CD44v6. And it has no significant relevance to ER, PR, CerBb-2 and P53.3. The overall survival rate is significantly higher in CD44v6-negative group than in CD44v6-positive group. The survival curve has a tendency to decline with the stronger expression of CD44v6. CD44v6 may be a prognostic factors of breast cancer.4. CD44v6 can not be a marker to detect the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy.