CD44 EXON-6 EXPRESSION AS A POSSIBLE EARLY PROGNOSTIC FACTOR IN PRIMARY NODE-NEGATIVE BREAST-CARCINOMA

Breast cancer is the most common female malignancy affecting approxima tely one woman in eight, Many attempts have been made to define marker s which may have potential clinical applications in diagnosis as well as therapy. New isoforms of CD44 with alternative spliced exons have r ecently been described, We studied the expression of CD44 exon 6 using a semi-quantitative RT-PCR reaction on a panel of 25 normal breast sp ecimens, 10 mammary fibroadenomas, eight cystic samples and 52 primary breast tumors. Significant correlation was found between CD44 exon 6 expression and the overall survival of the N-M-population, P = 0.032, (logrank test by Mantel's mettled), The saute result was also observed for the disease-free survival, P= 0.000002 (logrank test by Mantel's method). CD44 exon 6 expression, as detected by our RT-PCR based metho d, might be a useful prognostic indicator of metastasis in breast canc er. However, these preliminary results need to be confirmed by later r etrospective and prospective studies on a larger number of a patients.