BACKGROUND@#
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly aggressive
malignancy characterized by rapid
growth, early
metastasis and acquired
therapeutic resistance, and the
prognosis is extremely poor. Studies have proved that the
stem cell marker CD44 is correlated with
tumor recurrence and
treatment resistance, however, there are limited
reports yet concerning on the CD44 expression and its clinical prognostic significance in SCLC
patients. The purpose of this study is to investigate the expression of CD44 in
tumor tissues as well as
serum of SCLC
patients and explore its correlation with the clinical characteristics,
therapeutic effect and
prognosis.@*
METHODS@#The
tumor tissues and
serum samples of 47 newly diagnosed SCLC
patients were collected.
Immunohistochemistry and
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were applied to detect CD44. The relationship between CD44 level and the clinical characteristics as well as
prognosis of the
patients was analyzed.@*RESULTS@#The
stem cell marker CD44 was detectable both in
serum sample and
tumor tissue of SCLC
patients. The positive rate of CD44 in
tumor tissue was significantly higher in
patients with performance status (PS) 2 than that of
patients with PS 0-1 (85.71% vs 30%, P=0.017).
Patients were divided in to different groups according to the
treatment efficacy. The CD44 immunohistochemical score and
serum level in the
disease progression group were significantly higher than those in the
disease control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P=0.006, P=0.034), Univariate
analysis depicted that the
progression-free survival (PFS) of CD44 positive
patients was significantly shorter than that of CD44 negative
patients (5.23 mon vs 9.03 mon, P=0.036).@*CONCLUSIONS@#The positive expression of CD44 in
tumor tissues of pre-
treatment SCLC
patients is correlated with poor PFS. The
clinical significance of CD44 is worthy to be further studied.