Evaluation of the Correlation between CD44, Tumor Prognosis and the 5-Year Survival Rate in Patients with Oral Tongue SCC

Document Type : Original

Authors

1 Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

2 Otorhinolaryngology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Siences, Tehran, Iran.

3 Neurologist, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

4 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Amir Alam Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Siences, Tehran, Iran.

5 Department of Pathology, Amir Alam Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Siences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction:
90% of the tumors in the head and neck are squamous-cell carcinomas (HNSCC), which have overall 5- year survival rate between 50% -60%. CD44 has been shown to be associated with the prognosis.
 Materials and Methods:
Biopsy specimens of 51 patients with oral tongue SCC were evaluated by Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for the CD44 antibody.
 Results:
There was no significant correlation between CD44 and survival (P=0.77), age (P=0.4), CD44 and lymph node metastasis (P=0.87), sex (P=0.947), smoking (P=0.287) and tumor size (P=0.813). However, there was significant correlation between smoking and survival. 
 Conclusion:
There are widespread discrepancies among the findings in the literature regarding the prognosis of CD44 expression in OCSCC. Our study shows that the expression of CD44 is not a marker of aggressive behavior in oral tongue SCC. Consequently, CD44 cannot be considered as handy tool to establish the tumor behavior, prognosis and 5- year survival rate of these tumors. 

Keywords

Main Subjects


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