CD44v6 as a prognostic factor in cervical carcinoma FIGO stage IB

The aim of our study was to clarify whether CD44v6 evaluation can serve as a universally applicable prognostic factor in patients with FIGO stage IB cervical carcinoma. A retrospective study was performed on 178 FIGO stage IB (142 IB N0, 36 IB N1) radically operated cervical carcinoma patients. The expression of CD44v6 was investigated by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The prognostic significance of established prognostic factors and CD44v6 expression was analyzed by univariate and multivariate analyses. To test the reproducibility and to account for interobserver variability, all specimens were evaluated independently at two institutions. Two different IHC scoring systems, several cut-off levels for CD44v6 positivity and several statistical methods for IHC results evaluation were used. In a univariate analysis, the most significant prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) was lymph node status (p<0.001) followed by tumor volume, LVSI, GOG score (p<0.01) and a deep stromal invasion (p = 0.06). We found a strong correlation between CD44v6 expression and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (SCC vs. adenocarcinoma - p<0.001) and between CD44v6 expression and deep stromal invasion, LVSI and GOG score (p<0.05). The CD44v6 expression was not a statistically significant prognostic factor for OS in a univariate analysis (p=0.39 Vienna; p=0.54 Freiburg). In a multivariate analysis, the most significant prognostic factor for OS was lymph node status (p =0.002), followed by tumor diameter and LVSI (p<0.05). CD44v6 expression was not a statistically significant prognostic factor for OS or disease-free interval (DFI) independent of the scoring method used. In conclusion, we demonstrated that CD44v6 expression is associated with LVSI, deep stromal invasion and SCC, but has no prognostic influence on OS and DFI in a population of 178 women with FIGO stage IB cervical carcinoma.