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Evaluation of soluble adhesion molecules CD44 (CD44st, CD44v5, CD44v6), ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 as tumor markers in head and neck cancer. 2005
OBJECTIVE Standard CD44 (CD44st), CD44 variant 5 (CD44v5), and CD44 variant 6 (CD44v6), intercellular adhesion molecule 1(ICAM-1), and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1(VCAM-1) are expressed in human malignant cells and tissues. Their mechanism remains unclear but has been reported to be associated with the progression and metastasis of malignancies. METHODS In this study, we investigated any correlations between the soluble adhesion molecule CD44 (st, v5, and v6), ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 and the clinicopathologic variables (eg, age, sex, histological grading, tumor size, lymph node status, distant metastasis, and TNM staging) and evaluated the difference between the pretreatment level in the patients with head and neck cancer and that in the control group. Furthermore, we examined the difference between the pretreatment serum levels and the after-treatment serum levels in the group with head and neck cancer. The pretreatment and after-treatment serum levels of soluble CD44st, CD44v5, CD44v6, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 were measured in 81 patients with head and neck cancer and in 20 healthy volunteers as controls. RESULTS There were no significant differences between the serum levels of sCD44st, sCD44v5, sCD44v6, sICAM-1, and sVCAM-1 and the clinicopathologic variables in cancer patients. However, the higher serum level of sCD44v6 was significantly associated with distant metastasis (P = .02). Especially, we found that the pretreatment serum levels of sCD44st, sCD44v5, and sCD44v6 were markedly associated with TNM staging (CD44st P = .0017, CD44v5 P = .0005, CD44v6 P = .0046). Furthermore, the median serum levels of sCD44st, sCD44v5, sCD44v6, sICAM-1, and sVCAM-1 before treatment of head and neck cancer were significantly higher than those of the control group (CD44st P = .0067, CD44v5 P = .0048, CD44v6 P = .0007, ICAM-1 P = .0089, VCAM-1 P = .0178). The median serum level of sCD44st after treatment in the group of patients was significantly lower than that of pretreatment (CD44st P = .0001). And, both the median serum levels of sCD44v5 and sCD44v6 after treatment were also lower than those of pretreatment (CD44v5 P = .0004, CD44v6 P = .0025). CONCLUSIONS The possible roles of soluble adhesion molecules in the prognosis of head and neck carcinoma deserve further elucidation and evaluation with long-term patient follow-up.
