Investigation of prognostic significance of CD109 expression in women with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Pelin Özün Özbay,1,2 Tekin Ekinci,2,3 Seyran Yiğit,4 Ali Yavuzcan,2,5 Selda Uysal,2 Ferit Soylu,2 Fulya Cakalagaoglu4 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dogubeyazit State Hospital, Ağri, 2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Atatürk Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kozluk State Hospital, Batman, 4Department of Pathology, Atatürk Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, 5Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Düzce University Faculty of Medicine, Düzce, Turkey Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the between cluster of differentiation 109 (CD109) expression and tumor diameter, invasion depth, tumor grade, presence of lymph-node metastasis, and overall survival in patients with vulvar squamous cell carcinoma, which is the most common type of vulvar cancer. Method: Twenty-six patients who underwent an operation for vulvar cancer between 1999 and 2009 in our clinic were included in this study. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue. Result: Tumor diameter was not found to be significantly associated with CD109 expression, intensity of cytoplasmic staining, or combined score (P = 0.325, P = 0.169, P = 0.352, respectively). Invasion depth and combined score were also not significantly correlated with CD109 expression (P = 0.324 and P = 0.174 respectively). There was a negative correlation between invasion depth and the intensity of cytoplasmic staining (P = 0.042). There was no significant correlation between tumor stage and CD109 expression, the intensity of cytoplasmic staining, and the combined score (P = 0.574, P = 0.389, P = 0.605, respectively). A significant positive correlation was observed between tumor grade and CD109 expression, the intensity of cytoplasmic staining, and the combined score (P = 0.003, P = 0.018, P = 0.008, respectively). No significant difference was found between the percentages of CD109 expression in patients with positive (48%) and negative (11%) lymph nodes (P = 0.058). The percentage of CD109 expression did not significantly differ in relation to overall survival (P = 0.483). Conclusion: Comprehensive and more extensive studies are needed to examine the relationship between CD109 expression and vulvar malignant lesions. Keywords: tumor diameter, invasion depth, tumor grade, lymph-node metastasis, overall survival