CD146 is a potential marker for the diagnosis of malignancy in cervical and endometrial cancer

Cluster of differentiation 146 (CD146) is an endothelial cell adhesion molecule which is overexpressed in various types of malignant cancer, including ovarian cancer. However, whether CD146 is overexpressed in another two types of gynecological cancer, cervical cancer and endometrial cancer, remains unclear. In the present study, we showed that CD146 expression levels were higher in cells from cervical cancer and endometrial cancer compared with their corresponding normal tissues, using anti-CD146 mouse antibody AA4 (mAb AA4) and that mAb AA4 exhibited a high performance for specificity, sensitivity and positive predictive value in the detection of these two types of cancer. CD146 expression was positively and significantly correlated with the pathological subtype of cervical cancer and with the histological grade and depth of myometrial invasion in endometrial cancer. In addition, we confirmed that CD146 is present in the majority of blood vessels in cervical and endometrial cancer, suggesting that CD146 may be actively implicated in the metastasis of cervical and endometrial cancer via the vascular system. Thus, this study provides insights for further development of CD146 mAb in the detection of gynecological malignant cancer types and implies that a combined treatment strategy of anti-CD146 immunotherapy with other traditional chemo- or radiotherapy treatments may be a promising approach against cervical and endometrial cancer.