CD44 Standard Isoform; Not a Good Marker for Colon Cancer

CD44 isoforms are known to be possible diagnostic and prognostic markers in colorectal cancer (CRC).
The present study aims at investigating the expression of CD44 standard (CD44s) isoform in CRC by immunohistochemistry (IHC) as well as exploring its clinicopathological correlations.
A total of 102 patients, who underwent surgery for primary colorectal adenocarcinoma, were enrolled in this study. IHC staining for CD44 was performed on pathology samples and defined as: staining 50% as strong/extensive expression level.
The patients’ mean age was 62.8 ± 15.67 years. IHC staining for CD44s demonstrated low expression level in 56%, moderate in 24%, and extensive in 20% of the participants. The only association was found between CD44 expression level and patients’ age (P = 0.03) as 25% of tumors in patients younger than 60 years old expressed CD44 expression strongly in contrast to 16.1% of the patients older than 60 years old. No other association was found between tumor histology, stage, gender, tumor location, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, lymph node metastasis, or tumor subtype (P > 0.05).
No relation was found between CD44s expression and any tumoral characteristics of CRC. It seems that CD44s are not helpful in improving the prognostic or diagnostic power in CRC.