A study on expression of CD44V6 protein in non-small cell lung cancer

Objective To study the relation between expression of CD44V6 protein and the clinical pathological characteristics of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) .Methods Expression of CD44V6 protein was examined in 74 NSCLC samples by immunohistochemistry. Results The positive rate of CD44V6 expression in NSCLC was 44.6% (33/74). the positive rate of CD44V6 expression was significantly higher in NSCLC with lymph node metastasis (63.3%) than that without lymph node metastasis(31.8%, P 0.01) .In stage I + II patients (30.0 % ) and in stage III + IV patients (59.1 % ), a highly significant difference existed between the two groups ( P 0.05). The expression of CD44V6 had a negative correlation with the 3-year survival rate ( P 0.05), but no correlation with cell differention, age, and sex of the patients ( P 0. 05) . Conclusion Overexpression of CD44V6 may have close relation to prognosis of the patient with NSCLC, can be used to predict metastasis and prognosis of NSCLC.