Background: Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant neoplasms worldwide and has a high mortality\nrate. To enable individualized therapy regimens, a better understanding of the molecular tumor biology has still to\nbe elucidated. The expression of the cell surface protein CD24 has already been claimed to be associated with\nshorter patient survival in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), however, the prognostic value and applicability of\nCD24 immunostaining in paraffin embedded tissue specimens has been questioned due to the recent\nacknowledgement of restricted epitope specificity of the commonly used antibody SN3b.\nMethods: A cohort of 137 primary NSCLC cases was immunostained with a novel CD24 antibody (clone SWA11),\nwhich specifically recognizes the CD24 protein core and the resulting expression data were compared with\nexpression profiles based on the monoclonal antibody SN3b. Furthermore, expression data were correlated to\nclinico-pathological parameters. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were conducted with Kaplan Meier\nestimates and Cox regression, respectively.\nResults: CD24 positivity was found in 34 % resp. 21 % (SN3b) of NSCLC with a membranous and/or cytoplasmic\nstaining pattern. Kaplan-Meier analyses revealed that membranous, but not cytoplasmic CD24 [removed]clone\nSWA11) was associated with lympho-nodular spread and shorter overall survival times (both p < 0.05). CD24\nexpression established by SN3b antibodies did not reveal significant clinicopathological correlations with overall\nsurvival, neither for cytoplasmic nor membranous CD24 staining.\nConclusions: Membranous CD24 immunoreactivity, as detected with antibody clone SWA11 may serve as a\nprognostic factor for lymphonodular spread and poorer overall survival. Furthermore, these results corroborate the\nimportance of a careful distinction between membranous and cytoplasmic localisation, if CD24 is to be considered\nas a potential prognostic biomarker.
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