Relationship between CD44 expression and differentiation of human prostate adenocarcinomas.

It is well documented that CD44 plays an important role in tumor metastasis. We investigated whether there is a correlation between the expression of its isoforms in prostate cancer cells and patient prognosis using 72 cases with biopsy specimens. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated expression of CD44H (68.1%), v6 (36.1%) and v9 (68.1%) to be relatively more frequent than that of other isoforms. A positive correlation between CD44H expression and tumor differentiation was found but this did not extend to clinical staging or prognosis. Likewise, results for CD44v6 or v9 expression suggest that they may be useful markers for prostate adenocarcinoma differentiation but not prognosis.