Prognostic significance of CD155 mRNA expression in soft tissue sarcomas

CD155 was initially identified as a receptor for poliovirus. Several studies have demonstrated that CD155 overexpression in cancer cells is significant in their migration, invasion, proliferation and metastasis. The objective of the present study was to investigate the correlation between CD155 expression and the clinical aggressiveness of soft tissue tumors. The CD155 expression levels in 43 surgically-resected soft tissue tumors were evaluated using the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The clinicopathogical factors affecting the expression levels of CD155 mRNA were investigated and the association between the expression levels of CD155 and patient prognosis was identified. The CD155 expression level was not correlated with the patient gender, site of the primary tumor, tumor depth, tumor size or presence of distant metastasis at presentation, but was correlated with patient age (Fisher's exact test). The local recurrence-free survival rate for patients with a high CD155 expression level was observed to be significantly poorer compared with that of patients with low CD155 expression levels (P=0.0401). Moreover, a multivariate analysis indicated that a high CD155 expression level was an independent adverse prognostic factor for local recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio, 6.369; P=0.0328). The present study therefore suggests that the expression level of CD155 is a useful marker for predicting the local recurrence of soft tissue tumors.