[Expression of CD44 variant exon 6 in lung cancers]

Immunohistochemical staining was carried out on 79 samples of lung cancers using anti-CD44v6 antibody. Strong positivity for CD44v6 was observed in the basal cells of bronchial epithelium, squamous metaplasia, and type II pneumocytes. The expression of CD44v6 in primary lesions of non-small cell lung cancers and small cell lung cancers was 67.6% (48/71) and 0% (0/8) respectively, while the expression of CD44v6 in metastases of lymph nodes was 57.6% (19/33) and 0% (0/5), respectively. It is suggest that expression of CD44v6 is correlated with histologic type, differentiation and metastasis of lung cancer.