Background: Tetraspanin CD151 is a positive effector of cancer invasion and metastasis.
Methods: We investigated the expression of CD151 by immunohistochemistry in 211 cases of grade I to IV gliomas. Additionally, we performed O6-methylguanin-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) methylation analysis using real-time methylation-specific PCR in 36 patients with glioblastoma, and the prognostic significance of these biomarkers in glioblastomas was evaluated.
Results: Overexpression of CD151 was observed in a significant proportion (55.6%) of glioblastomas, while CD151 was rarely overexpressed in most of grade I to III glial tumors. CD151 overexpression was closely associated with MGMT methylation (P = 0.014), and it was a prognostic factor for predicting worse overall survival (OS; P = 0.002) and progression-free survival (PFS; P = 0.043). We also found that combination of CD151 overexpression and MGMT methylation better stratified the patients' OS (P = 0.001) and PFS (P = 0.009). In multivariate analysis, CD151 overexpression was an independent prognostic factor for predicting OS over MGMT methylation (P = 0.012).
Conclusions: CD151 seems to have a critical role for high-grade progression in astroglial tumors. Furthermore, CD151 is a good tissue marker that can be used easily in a daily practice for predicting worse prognosis in patients with glioblastoma.
Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.