Prognostic Value of CD44 and HER2/Neu in Invasive Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder, GHADA A. ABD EL-FATTAH, RASHA M. EL-SAWI and RASHA M. ABD-RABUH
Abstract
Purpose: Urinary bladder cancer is a very common world-wide cancer. In Egypt, there was a significant rise in the incidence of TCC in the last years. CD44 is a transmembrane glycoprotein thought to play an important role in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. HER-2/neu is an oncogene. Its over-expression has been associated with some different types of human cancers. The present study aimed at evaluating the prognostic value of CD44 and HER2/neu in invasive TCC of urinary bladder.
Patients and Methods: This study includes 6 cases of normal bladder mucosa as a control and 40 cases of TCC (15 cases of grade 2 and 25 cases of grade 3). Cases were collected from Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University and Egyptian National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the period 2009 – 2011. Follow-up of the selected cases was recorded for 2 years. Immunohistochemical staining for CD44 and HER2/neu was performed in all cases and the patterns of expression were analyzed.
Results: The expression of CD44 was higher in control cases than TCC and was significantly decreased in cases with poor patient prognosis (p<0.05). The high tumor grades and the deeply invasive tumors (T3) were significantly associated with low CD44 expression (p<0.01). The expression of HER2/neu increased in tumor cases than control. HER2/neu expression was significantly increased in cases with higher tumor grade (p<0.01).
Conclusion: Low CD44 expression was correlated to higher tumor grade and stage and poor patient’s survival. HER2/neu overexpression was relevant in high grade (grade 3) specimens compared with lower grade of TCC.