Expression of CD133 protein in osteosarcoma and its relationship with the clinicopathological features and prognosis

The objective of this study is to evaluate the association between expression of CD133 protein and the clinicopathological features of patients with osteosarcoma.

This study retrospectively analyzed 28 cases of osteosarcoma in our hospital from 2007 to 2016, as well as 21 cases of osteochondroma in the same period as control group. The expression of CD133 protein in paraffin specimens of two groups of patients was detected with immunohistochemistry SP assay.

CD133-positive staining was observed in the cytoplasm or cell membrane. The positive rate of CD133 protein expression in osteosarcoma tissue was significantly higher than that of in osteochondroma (60.7% vs. 19.0%), with statistically significant difference (P < 0.01). The patients of osteosarcoma were followed up for 11-94 months, and the median survival time was 47 months. During follow-up period, there were 16 cases of lung, spine, or retroperitoneal metastasis. At the end of the follow-up, 15 cases were dead and 13 cases were still alive. Distant metastasis and Enneking staging were significantly correlated with CD133-positive expression in osteosarcoma patients (P < 0.05), and the proportion of CD133-positive expression was high in both distant metastasis and Enneking staging. The median disease-free survival time was 21 and 32 months for CD133-positive and CD133-negative expression patients with osteosarcoma, respectively, with statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). However, the median survival time of the CD133-positive and CD133-negative expression groups was 46 and 49 months, without statistically significant difference (P > 0.05).

The expression of CD133 protein in patients with osteosarcoma was significantly high and related to the distant metastasis, which may be a potential prediction biomarker for poor prognosis of osteosarcoma patients.