Investigation of prognostic significance of CD44 expression in women with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma

The aim of our study is to evaluate whether CD 44 isoform expression is a prognostic factor in vulvar carcinom and to correlate the expression with clinicopathological parameters. Methods: The study included 26 patients diagnosed with invasive squamous cell vulvar cancer. The data of patients were obtained from the oncology follow-up records and the hospital database. The haemotoxylene & eosin stained preparates of the cases were removed from the archives and re-evaluated by examination of the slides under a light microscope. The preparates of the patients were evaluated separately according to the extent and intensity of staining and the combined score applied with the immunohistochemical method in the anti-CD44 antibody in the epithelium and the stroma. Results: When the CD44 epithelial staining intensity and staining combined scores of the patients were examined according to other clinicopathological parameters, a statistically significant difference was found between the groups in terms of tumour grade, differentiation, age, lymph node positivity, and survival rates (p