Expression of variant CD44 containing variant exon v8-10 in gallbladder cancer.

We studied the Cd44v8-10 expression in gallbladder cancer immunohistochemically. Eighteen of 37 gallbladder cancer tissues expressed CD44v8-10. There were significant correlations between CD44v8-10 immunoreactivity and perineural invasion, venous invasion, and lymph node metastasis. Patients with CD44v8-10-positive tumors showed poor prognoses, whereas those with CD44v8-10-negative tumors had favorable prognoses. A multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model showed the immunoreactivity of CD44v8-10 to be an independent prognostic indicator of gallbladder cancer. The results suggest that CD44v8-10 expression may be a biologic marker of prognostic significance in gallbladder cancer.