Abstract:

Objective  To investigate possible effects of CD44 on the incidence and development of human pancreatic caner and the correlations among CD44 and clinical pathological parameters, survival period, and prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer. Methods  A total of 67 pancreatic cancer samples were collected in Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from Jan. 2010 to Dec. 2012. The gender, age, histological typing, location of tumor, and lymph node metastasis of patients were recorded and the expression of CD44 was detected by the immunohistochemical method. Results  The positive rate of CD44 expression of 67 samples was 73.1% (49/67). Univariate analysis showed that the positive expression of CD44 was correlated with T staging, TNM staging, lymph node metastasis, the differentiation degree, and location of tumor (P<0.05). The differences of the positive rate of CD44 expression of patients with different age, gender, vascular invasion, and nerve invasion were not statistically significant (P>0.05). The Cox proportional hazards model analysis showed that differentiation, CD44 expression, and nerve invasion were independent prognostic factors. Conclusion  The expression level of CD44 of patients with pancreatic cancer was high and correlated with the malignant degree of pancreatic cancer. CD44 expression, differentiation, and nerve invasion are independent prognostic factors of pancreatic cancer.

Key words: CD44, pancreatic cancer, metastasis, prognosis