Tumour biological aspects of CD24, a mucin-like adhesion molecule.

CD24 is a molecule that recently has raised considerable attention in tumour biology. It is involved in cell adhesion and metastatic tumour spread. It has also been described as a new diagnostic marker of tumours, of neuroendocrine differentiation and, possibly most intriguing of all, of patient prognosis. High rates of CD24 expression detected by immunohistochemistry have been found in epithelial ovarian cancer (83%), breast cancer (85%), non-small cell lung cancer (45%), prostate cancer (48%) and pancreatic cancer (72%). With the exception of pancreatic cancer, high rates of CD24 are significantly associated with a more aggressive course of the disease, a finding that remains significant in a multivariate analysis. The aim of this review is to summarize relevant work covering these aspects of CD24.