EXPRESSION OF MESSENGER-RNA CD44 SPLICE VARIANTS IN PRIMARY COLON-CANCER AND LIVER METASTASES

CD44 splice variants have been implicated in metastasis. We studied CD 44 variants in 39 patients with colonic neoplasia and 8 without malign ant disease using RT-PCR. CD44 splice variants were detected in most l iver metastases and primary tumours and expression was unrelated to ly mph node involvement. Non-neoplastic tissue was negative for variant e xpression. The finding that virtually all primary colorectal tumours e xpressed the variants studied, suggests that this early expression of polymorphism is not sufficient to confer metastasis in colorectal canc er.