1. Stem cell marker CD133 affects clinical outcome in glioma patients.
- Author
-
Zeppernick F, Ahmadi R, Campos B, Dictus C, Helmke BM, Becker N, Lichter P, Unterberg A, Radlwimmer B, and Herold-Mende CC
- Subjects
- AC133 Antigen, Adult, Brain Neoplasms metabolism, Brain Neoplasms mortality, Disease-Free Survival, Female, Glioma metabolism, Glioma mortality, Humans, Immunohistochemistry, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Middle Aged, Peptides, Prognosis, Survival Analysis, Antigens, CD biosynthesis, Brain Neoplasms pathology, Glioma pathology, Glycoproteins biosynthesis, Stem Cells metabolism
- Abstract
Purpose: The CD133 antigen has been identified as a putative stem cell marker in normal and malignant brain tissues. In gliomas, it is used to enrich a subpopulation of highly tumorigenic cancer cells. According to the cancer stem cell hypothesis, CD133-positive cells determine long-term tumor growth and, therefore, are suspected to influence clinical outcome. To date, a correlation between CD133 expression in primary tumor tissues and patients' prognosis has not been reported., Experimental Design: To address this question, we analyzed the expression of the CD133 stem cell antigen in a series of 95 gliomas of various grade and histology by immunohistochemistry on cryostat sections. Staining data were correlated with patient outcome., Results: By multivariate survival analysis, we found that both the proportion of CD133-positive cells and their topological organization in clusters were significant (P < 0.001) prognostic factors for adverse progression-free survival and overall survival independent of tumor grade, extent of resection, or patient age. Furthermore, proportion of CD133-positive cells was an independent risk factor for tumor regrowth and time to malignant progression in WHO grade 2 and 3 tumors., Conclusions: These findings constitute the first conclusive evidence that CD133 stem cell antigen expression correlates with patient survival in gliomas, lending support to the current cancer stem cell hypothesis.
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF