[Relationship between lymphatic metastasis in breast and cervix cancers and the level of CD44-H expression evaluated by an immunohistochemical method].

Immunohistochemistry has been used to evaluate the relationship between the rate of CD44-H antigen expression in breast invasive intracanalicuar and cervical epidermoïd carcinomas and the presence of node metastasis. A total of 36 cases of breast carcinoma and 20 cases of cervical carcinoma was examined. For the two types of carcinoma, the CD44-H molecule was highly expressed in cases with node metastasis; with 50% and 75% median value of CD44-H positive tumor cells respectively for the breast (p < 0.02) and for the uterine cervix (p < 0.05) compared to respectively 10% and 37.5% in the cases without node metastasis. The expression of this molecule increases with invasive potential of tumor cells and the use of this antigen for prognostic ends may be possible.