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

Pelin Özün Özbay,^1,2 Tekin Ekinci,^2,3 Seyran Yiğit,⁴ Ali Yavuzcan,^2,5 Selda Uysal,² Ferit Soylu,² Fulya Cakalagaoglu<sup>4

1</sup>Department 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