Objective: To investigate the expression of the cell adhesion molecule (CD44V6) in thyroid tumor tissue and its relationship with the pathogenesis, development, invasiveness and metastasis of the tumor.
Methods: Immunohistochemistry was applied to examine the expression of CD44V6 in 20 specimens of tissue adjacent to carcinoma, 24 of thyroid adenoma and 64 of thyroid carcinoma (including 30 papillary carcinoma, 26 follicular carcinoma, 2 anaplastic carcinoma and 6 medullary carcinoma). All the specimens were paraffin-embedded.
Results: The expression of CD44V6 was observed in 14 specimens of adenomas(58.33%), and 59 of carcinoma (92.19%), but was not detected in the tissue adjacent to carcinoma. The expression of CD44V6 was significantly different between follicular epithelial carcinoma and medullary carcinoma (96.55% vs 50.0%, P < 0.01). The frequency of overexpression of CD44V6 was associated with both invasiveness and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.01), but it had no relation with age, sex and tumor size (P > 0.05).
Conclusion: It is suggested that CD44V6 will be useful for the diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma and serves as a biological marker for local invasion and lymph node metastasis of thyroid carcinoma.