These authors found that markers for cancer stem cells (CD24, CD44, and CD44v6) are expressed in higher percentages of urothelial cancer cells versus normal urothelium, suggesting enrichment of cancer stem cells in muscle-invasive tumors. The authors evaluated 118 muscle invasive bladder cancers and 21 benign urothelial specimens for expression of cancer stem cell markers: CD24, CD44, CD44v6, CD47) Tumors were positive if >5% of the cells demonstrated immunoreactivity.
Bladder tumors had expression of the cancer stem cell markers in the majority of cases, and normal urothelium had expression of the cancer stem cell markers in 50-60% of samples. Unfortunately, expression of the cancer stem cell markers did not convey a poor prognosis but in LN negative disease, a multivariable analysis revealed positive CD44v6 negatively impacted both recurrence-free survival (RFS) (p=0.02) and overall survival (p=0.04).
Presented by Edward Diaz, et.al., at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting - May 14 - 19, 2011 - Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC USA
Reported for UroToday by David P. Wood Jr., MD, Professor, Department of Urology, University of Michigan Health System.
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