@article{3132030,
    title = "The clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of CD44+/CD24-/low and CD44-/CD24+ tumor cells in invasive breast carcinomas",
    author = "Mylona, E. and Giannopoulou, I. and Fasomytakis, E. and Nomikos, A. and Magkou, C. and Bakarakos, P. and Nakopoulou, L.",
    journal = "HUMAN PATHOLOGY",
    year = "2008",
    volume = "39",
    number = "7",
    pages = "1096-1102",
    issn = "0046-8177",
    doi = "10.1016/j.humpath.2007.12.003",
    keywords = "CD24 antigen;  Hermes antigen;  tumor antigen, adult;  aged;  article;  breast carcinoma;  cancer staging;  disease association;  disease free survival;  female;  histopathology;  human;  human tissue;  image analysis;  immunohistochemistry;  invasive carcinoma;  lymph node metastasis;  major clinical study;  pathology;  phenotype;  prevalence;  prognosis;  tumor cell;  tumor differentiation, Antigens, CD24;  Antigens, CD44;  Breast Neoplasms;  Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast;  Carcinoma, Lobular;  Disease-Free Survival;  Female;  Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect;  Humans;  Image Processing, Computer-Assisted;  Immunoenzyme Techniques;  Lymph Nodes;  Lymphatic Metastasis;  Mastectomy;  Neoplasm Invasiveness;  Survival Rate",
    abstract = "Cells with distinct phenotypes and stem cell-like properties have been reported to exist in breast cancer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of the CD44+/CD24-/low and CD44-/CD24+ tumor phenotypes' prevalence. Double immunohistochemistry was applied on a series of 155 paraffin-embedded breast tissue specimens to detect CD44 and CD24. Evaluation of the phenotypes was performed by image analysis. The prevalence of CD44+/CD24-/low and CD44-/CD24+ tumor cells was 58.7% and 82.6%, respectively. The dominance of the CD44+/CD24-/low tumor cells was inversely associated with lymph node metastasis (P = .019) and tended to inversely associate with the stage of the disease (P = .068). Moreover, the prevalence of CD44+/CD24-/low was found to exert no significant impact on patients' prognosis although it displayed a tendency toward an increase in disease-free survival (P = .074). On the other hand, the prevalence of CD44-/CD24+ tumor cells was found to have no clinicopathologic significance. However, it was found to exert an unfavorable impact on both relapse-free (P = .009) and overall survival (P = .046) of the patients with breast carcinomas of intermediate differentiation (grade 2). In breast tissue, CD44+/CD24-/low tumor cells seem to be associated with lack of lymph node metastasis and a tendency toward an increase of the relapse-free survival of the patients. On the contrary, tumor cells with the phenotype CD44-/CD24+ seem to identify patients with worse disease-free and overall survival within the group of intermediate-grade differentiation patients whose prognosis is difficult to assess. © 2008."
}