HAb18G (CD147), a cancer-associated biomarker and its role in cancer detection

Aims: To evaluate HAb18G/CD147 as a cancer-associated biomarker using its monoclonal antibody HAb18. Methods and results: On immunohistochemical analysis of 28 tissue microarrays and pathological sections of 1117 breast tissue samples, HAb18G/CD147 was expressed in carcinoma with an overall positivity rate of 67.76%, which was significantly higher than that in sarcomas (27.34%, P < 0.0001) and normal epithelial (5.18%, P < 0.0001) and fetal (2.67%, P < 0.0001) tissues. In epithelial tissues from 14 organs, the difference in HAb18G/CD147 expression between normal epithelium and the corresponding carcinoma was also significant (P < 0.05 for each pair). This expression in carcinoma was also found at the mRNA level, suggesting transcriptional level regulation of HAb18G/CD147 expression. In a retrospective study of 106 patients with infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast, the level of HAb18G/CD147 expression was positively correlated with tumour recurrence/metastasis (P = 0.0003) and negatively correlated with survival of breast cancer patients (P = 0.002). Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that HAb18G/CD147 was an independent prognostic factor. Conclusions: HAb18G/CD147 is significantly expressed in various cancers and appears to have prognostic significance, rendering it a possible cancer-associated biomarker for pathological diagnosis, prognostic evaluation, targeted therapy and radioimmunoimaging of a broad range of cancer types.