Detection of Malignant Cells in Pleural Fluid or Ascites by CD44v8-10/CD44v10 competitive RT-PCR

Myung-Ju Ahn, Yun-Hee Noh, Ho-Ju Yoon, Suck-Cheol Yang, Jang-Won Sohn, Jung-Hae Choi, Young-Yeul Lee, Il-Young Choi, In-Soon Kim, Yong-Sung Lee, Chan-Kum Park

CD44 is a cell surface adhesion molecule which has been implicated in various biologic functions as lymphocyte homing and activation, cellular migration and extracellular matrix adhesion. Over-expression of CD44v8-10 has been found in several cancers and is considered to be associated with tumor progression and metastasis. Recently, a novel molecular method, CD44v8-10/CD44v10 competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) has been developed for detecting cancer cells over-expressing CD44v8-10. We analyzed from benign and malignant pleural effusion and ascites by CD44 competitive RT-PCR and compared to the conventional cytology. The CD44 competitive RT-PCR analysis showed that all the 24 samples associated with benign disease presented a predominant expression of the CD44v10 transcript (v8-10/v10 ratio: 0.126-0.948), whereas 6 of 7 malignant pleural samples associated with cytology positive cancer expressed the CD44v8-10 transcript (v8-10/v10 ratio > 1.00). These results indicate that CD44 competitive RT-PCR assay is a useful and adjunct to cytological examination in cancer diagnosis, especially in detecting exfoliated cancer cells in pleural effusion.