Correlation of CD44 Protein Expression with Larger Tumor Size and Advanced Stage of Breast Cancer Patients

This study aimed to determine the expression of CD44 in breast cancer and its association with patients' clinicopathological data, particularly in Bali.

This was a cross-sectional study in the Integrated Biomedical Laboratory and Biochemistry Laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine Udayana University, during January-December 2022, which lasted 12 months with 46 samples.

The study showed that the age range of our subjects was 38-86 years old, with the majority of the parity being less than three. The mean CD44 expression in all samples was 1177.83 ± 268.47 ng/mL. Based on the clinicopathological data, there was a significant difference in CD44 expression based on the patient's menstrual status (p=0.016), tumor size (p=0.003), and stage (p=0.002). Based on the analysis using the chi-square test with a cut-off CD44 expression of 85.81, significant results (p=0.001) were obtained on the association of CD44 expression with tumor size. The cut-off value with the stage of breast cancer was 99.66 and showed a significant association between CD44 expression advanced stage (p = 0.001) in breast cancer patients. Other variables showed insignificant results.

CD44 protein expression in breast cancer patients is between 35.47-1407.83 ng/mL. This study showed a significant association between CD44 expression with tumor size and the advanced stage of breast cancer patients.